THE  FOOD  PROBLEM 

KELLOGG  and  TAYLOR 


INTRODUCTION  BY  HERBERT  HOOVER 


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THE  FOOD  PROBLEM 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK  •    BOSTON  •   CHICAGO  •   DALLAS 
ATLANTA  •   SAN  FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Limited 

LONDON  •    BOMBAY  •    CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  Lm 

TORONTO 


THE  FOOD  PROBLEM 


BY 

VERNON  KELLOGG 

of  the  United  States  Food  Administration,  and  the 

Commission  for  Relief  in  Belgium;  and 

Professor  in  Stanford  University, 

California 

AND 

ALONZO  E.  TAYLOR 

of  the  United  States  Food  Administration,  and 

Exports  Administrative  Board;  and 

Professor  in  the  University  of 

Pennsylvania 


WITH  A  PREFACE  BY 

HERBERT  HOOVER 

United  States  Food  Administrator,  and  Chairman  of  the 
Commission  for  Relief  in  Belgium 


Stan  fork 
THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

1917 

All  right*  reterved 


OOPYMGHT,    1917 

By  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.    Published  November,  1917. 


~^f4t" 


"-^  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

SANTA  BARBARA  COLLEGE  LIBRARY 

K4~ 


PREFACE 

Today  the  war  has  entered  a  phase  in  which  food 
dominates  the  economics,  strategy  and  statesman- 
ship, not  only  of  the  countries  at  war  but  of  neutrals 
as  well.  The  Allies  are  blockading  Germany,  and 
its  population  is  living  in  an  era  of  food  control 
hitherto  undreamed  of.  The  adjacent  neutrals  are 
under  many  restraints  and  pressures  to  yield  their 
food  to  either  side  and  are  striving  with  every  re- 
source to  protect  their  vital  supplies.  The  Germans 
are  trying  to  starve  the  Allies  by  sinking  their  sup- 
plies at  sea.  All  are  desperately  trying  to  maintain 
production  and  reduce  consumption.  In  conse- 
quence food  problems  in  balancing  vegetable  and 
animal  production,  in  imports,  exports,  and  price 
controls,  in  protein,  fat  and  carbohydrate  content, 
are  all  silhouetted  against  a  background  of  destruc- 
tion and  tragedy. 

The  American  people  as  a  nation  and  as  individ- 
uals are  face  to  face  with  a  great  special  problem 
in  connection  with  the  whole  war  problem  the  solu- 
tion of  which  they  have  undertaken  in  common  with 
their  Allies.  A  failure  to  solve  this  problem  with 
its  thousand  complexities  will  certainly  involve  a 


VI  PREFACE 

failure  to  solve  the  war  problem  in  the  only  way 
we  and  the  civilized  world  must  have  it  solved. 

From  three  years  of  contact  with  this  problem  of 
food  some  phases  of  it  perhaps  not  too  familiar  to 
casual  students  of  food  regulation  are  very  clear 
to  me.  These  parts,  or  special  features,  are  mani- 
fest from  any  examination,  however  casual,  of  the 
endeavours  and  experience  of  the  countries  engaged 
with  the  problem. 

Any  control  of  prices  or  distribution  is  the  lesser 
of  evils ;  a  fight  against  something  worse.  And  any 
form  of  control  leads  into  economic  reactions  that 
are  disconcerting.  Another  feature  is  the  great 
role  which  what  may  be  termed  the  psychology  of 
food  supply  plays  in  the  situation.  However  care- 
fully national  food  supply  may  be  adjusted,  from 
the  point  of  view  of  the  physiology  of  nutrition  and 
from  that  of  nutritional  economics,  yet  no  mere 
sufficiency  of  the  needed  calories  and  balanced  pro- 
tein, fats  and  carbohydrate  content  in  the  ration  will 
necessarily  make  it  a  satisfactory  one.  People  of 
different  kinds,  with  different  traditions  and  habits 
of  food  use,  must  have,  in  some  measure  at  least,  the 
particular  kinds  of  food  they  are  used  to.  They 
eat  more  effectively,  one  may  say,  the  kinds  of  food 
they  like  than  the  kinds  they  do  not  like.  Taste 
and  appetite  must  be  consulted  and  satisfied  in  some 
degree. 


PREFACE  Vll 

Another  observation  that  experience,  especially  in 
Belgium,  brings  clearly  to  my  mind  is  that  famine 
does  not  occur  according  to  popular  ideas.  In  a 
country  on  a  food  supply  below  normal  necessity 
all  the  people  do  not  suffer  in  the  same  measure, 
nor  die  at  the  same  time.  The  rich  continue  to  live, 
despite  any  rigour  in  division;  the  poor  get  weak, 
and  weaker,  and  die  —  of  something  else  than  fam- 
ine. They  die  of  tuberculosis;  they  die  of  epidemic 
disease;  they  die  of  whatever  it  is  that  finds  fertile 
soil  for  its  fatal  growth  among  a  people  weakened 
by  mal-nutrition  or  under-nutrition.  The  imme- 
diate factor  in  famine  is  the  death  rate,  from  what- 
ever determining  cause.  This  death  rate  is  the 
measure  of  the  intensity  of  weakening,  and  it  does 
not  necessarily  depend  exclusively  upon  the  amount 
of  food  that  is  available. 

Another  impressive  observation  brought  out  by 
food  difficulties  is  that  of  our  intimate  dependence 
on  our  domestic  animals.  We  are  likely  to  think 
first  of  the  supply  of  cereals,  and,  indeed,  it  must  be 
admitted  that  bread  is  the  very  basis  of  the  food 
supply  of  a  people.  But  we  do  not  sufficiently  real- 
ize the  equally  critical  importance  of  maintenance  of 
our  domestic  animals  in  a  period  of  food  shortage. 
We  cannot  even  raise  our  own  young  without  them. 
Nor  if  a  nation  is  robbed  of  its  animals  can  you 
keep  the  death  rate  of  that  nation  down  to  normal 


Vlll  PREFACE 

by  simple  importation  of  animal  products.  Hence 
one  of  the  greatest  problems  in  a  beleaguered  nation 
is  that  of  the  preservation  of  its  herds. 

The  reduction  of  the  herds  has  future  as  well  as 
immediate  grave  consequences.  Europe  today  is 
cutting  into  its  capital  stock  of  food  animals.  That 
means  that,  though  Europe  may  be  able  to  increase 
at  once  its  production  of  carbohydrate  and  can  sup- 
ply more  animal  food  at  the  moment,  its  after-war 
problems  in  protein  and  fats  will  be  doubled.  This 
situation  must  have  a  great  reaction  upon  our  own 
agriculture.  Europe  will  depend  on  America  for 
years  to  come  for  a  supply  of  animal  products.  The 
great  present  stimulation  of  wheat  growing  in  the 
United  States  by  guaranteeing  minimum  prices  may 
yet  have  some  of  the  characters  of  a  national  calam- 
ity. Indeed  it  may  be  questionable  whether  we 
should  not  in  our  own  country,  not  only  for  our  own 
sake  but  for  the  sake  of  supplying  our  hungry 
friends  of  Europe,  encourage  now  the  production  of 
animals  rather  than  restrict  too  largely  our  encour- 
agement to  the  production  of  wheat.  We  are  actu- 
ally, at  the  present  time,  reducing  our  capital  of  live 
stock  in  proportion  to  our  growth  of  population.  It 
will  be  easier  for  us,  just  as  it  will  for  Europe,  to  re- 
cover lost  wheat  acreage  than  the  lost  herds.  We 
shall  find  an  era  after  the  war  when  Europe  will 
produce  more  food  grains  by  virtue  of  the  reduction 


PREFACE  IX 

of  demand  for  fodder  grains  —  and  we  shall  have 
less  demand  for  export  of  food  grains  and  a  tre- 
mendous demand  for  animal  products.  It  requires 
that  we  begin  now  to  meet  this  readjustment  by 
laying  the  foundations  for  larger  herds.  One  par- 
tial substitute  for  animals  may  be  found  by  increas- 
ing the  supply  of  vegetable  fats,  and  in  this  lies 
much  of  the  world's  hopes. 

All  these  are  only  a  few  phases  of  the  great  food 
problem  before  us.  Professors  Kellogg  and  Taylor 
have  attempted  in  this  book  to  set  out  the  character 
and  scope  of  the  food  problem  as  it  now  immediately 
concerns  us,  and  to  indicate  the  possible  and  most 
promising  methods  of  its  solution.  The  United 
States  Food  Administration,  in  close  co-operation 
with  all  the  people  of  our  land,  is  making  a  gigantic 
effort  along  these  lines. 

Herbert  Hoover. 


INTRODUCTION 

THE   INTERNATIONAL   PROBLEM 

Food  is  always  more  or  less  of  a  problem  in  every 
phase  of  its  production,  handling  and  consumption. 
It  is  a  problem  with  every  farmer,  every  trans- 
porter and  seller,  every  householder.  It  is  a  prob- 
lem with  every  town,  state  and  nation.  And  now, 
very  conspicuously,  it  is  a  problem  with  three  great 
groups  of  nations,  namely,  the  Allies,  the  Central 
Empires  and  the  Neutrals;  in  a  word,  it  is  a  great 
international  problem. 

If  food  is  a  problem  in  the  normal  times  of 
peace  how  much  more  seriously  must  it  be  one  in 
the  abnormal  times  of  war;  and,  above  all,  of  such 
a  world  war  as  the  present.  In  this  particular  war 
time,  indeed,  it  is  acutely  true  that  food  is  a  great 
and  pressing  problem;  one  of  enormous  impor- 
tance, its  solution  bearing  heavily  on  the  whole 
solution  of  the  war.  Only  seven  years  ago  M. 
Bloch,  the  great  Russian  banker,  wrote :  "  That  is 
the  future  of  war  —  not  righting,  but  famine;  not 
the  slaying  of  men,  but  the  bankruptcy  of  nations, 

ad 


Xll  INTRODUCTION 

and  the  breaking  up  of  the  whole  social  organiza- 
tion of  the  nations." 

The  future  of  war,  as  written  about  by  M.  Bloch 
seven  years  ago,  is  the  present  of  war  today.  Not 
that  righting  and  the  slaying  of  men  are  lessened. 
Only  the  Napoleonic  and  the  Thirty  Years'  Wars 
approach  today's  war  in  the  terrible  losses  of  human 
life;  and  too  great  a  drain  on  the  human  life  of 
any  one  or  several  of  the  nations  engaged  may  be 
the  deciding  factor  in  the  war's  conclusion.  But  on 
the  whole,  and  as  matters  stand  today,  that  part  of 
M.  Bloch's  prophecy  referring  to  the  predominant 
influence  of  the  food  problem  in  modern  war  is 
thoroughly  borne  out  by  the  facts.  Despite  the 
fearful  and  fatal  struggling  of  an  incredible  number 
of  men,  consuming  inconceivable  quantities  of  muni- 
tions and  using  such  amazing  methods  of  fighting 
as  were  beyond  even  the  fantastic  imaginings  of 
the  romancers  of  a  decade  ago,  the  national  and 
international  phases  of  the  food  and  general  eco- 
nomic problem  are  the  predominant  features  of  the 
war  situation  today. 

Now  we  of  America  are  hurling  ourselves  into 
the  thick  of  this  struggle  at  exactly  the  time  of  both 
military,  economic  and  food  crisis.  We  are  volun- 
tarily taking  up  part,  and,  in  truth,  the  greater  part, 
of  the  burden  of  solving,  if  it  be  soluble  —  and  it 
must  be,  and  is  —  this  tremendous  problem  of  food 


INTRODUCTION  X1U 

for  the  Allied  world.  The  food  problem  of  today 
of  our  nation,  therefore,  has  as  its  most  conspicuous 
phase  an  international  character.  What  is  the  prob- 
lem in  detail?  What  are  the  general  conditions  of 
its  solution?  What  are  the  immediate  and  par- 
ticular conditions  which  especially  concern  us,  and 
are  within  our  power  to  affect  ?  And,  finally,  what 
are  we  actually  doing  to  meet  our  problem  ? 

These  circumstances  and  queries  just  outlined  are 
those  that  give  special  occasion  for  the  writing  and 
publication  at  this  moment  of  this  book. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Preface    v 

Introduction:  The  International  Problem      .     .     xi 


PART  I.  THE  PROBLEM  AND  THE  SOLUTION 

CHAPTER  PACE 

I    The  Food  Situation  of  the  Western  Allies 

and  the  United  States 3 

II    Food  Administration 19 

III  How  England,  France  and  Italy  Are  Con-' 

TROLLING   AND  SAVING  FOOD 38 

IV  Food  Control  in  Germany,  and  Its  Lessons    71 

PART  II.  THE  TECHNOLOGY  OF  FOOD  USE 

V    The  Physiology  of  Nutrition 103 

VI    The  Sociology  of  Nutrition 139 

VII    The  Sociology  of  Nutrition  (Continued)  .  167 

VIII    Grain  and  Alcohol 197 

Conclusion:  Patriotism  and  Food     .....  210 


PART  I 
THE  PROBLEM  AND  THE  SOLUTION 


THE  FOOD  PROBLEM 


CHAPTER  I 

THE   FOOD   SITUATION   OF   THE   WESTERN   ALLIES 
AND   THE   UNITED   STATES 


^ 


We  have  joined  ourselves,  in  effect  if  not  in 
signed  compact,  with  the  Allies  in  a  tremendous  war 
task.  The  men  of  most  of  these  Allies,  the  men  of 
England,  Scotland,  Ireland,  France,  Italy  and  Bel- 
gium, are  fighting;  they  are  not  on  the  farms.  But 
even  in  peace  times  these  nations  looked  to  us  for 
help  in  making  up  the  regular  annual  difference  be- 
tween their  food  production  and  their  food  needs; 
normally  these  six  countries,  taken  together,  produce 
but  sixty  per  cent  of  the  grains  necessary  for  their 
bread.  We  have  always  been  their  greatest  and 
most  reliable  granary,  food  store  and  meat  shop. 
And  now,  with  their  production  notably  lessened,  we 
are  almost  their  only  one.  The  grain  of  Russia  can-  •/  £ 
not  come  out.  The  food  of  Bulgaria,  Roumania 
and  Serbia  belongs  to  the  Central  Powers.  Aus- 
tralia and  India  are  much  farther  away  than  ever 
before,  what  with  submarines  and  an  available  sup- 
ply of  ships  so  small  that  no  ship  must  travel  one 

3 


4  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

sea-mile  farther  than  absolutely  necessary.  And  the 
European  neutrals,  caught  between  two  threatening 
fires,  must  divide  their  little  available  surplus  of 
meat  and  dairy  products  between  Germany  and  Eng- 
land. Of  cereals  they  have,  of  course,  no  surplus, 
but  rather  an  aching  void,  and,  therefore,  they,  too, 
must  come  to  us  with  appeals  for  the  satisfaction 
of  their  needs. 

America  then  has  the  immediate  and  very  great, 
but  not  impossible,  task  in  the  general  division  of 
war  labours  among  the  members  of  the  Allied 
group,  of  playing  a  predominant  part  in  insuring  a 
sufficient  and  regular  supply  of  food  for  the  main- 
tenance of  the  great  field  armies  of  our  fighting 
Allies,  and  of  their  no  less  great  armies  of  working 
men  and  women  in  the  war  industries,  and  finally, 
of  their  women  and  children  at  home.  This  main- 
tenance of  the  food  supplies  of  the  Western  Allies  is 
an  absolute  necessity,  second  to  no  other,  for  the 
successful  prosecution  of  the  war.  Men  continu- 
ously hungry  cannot  fight  or  work;  nor  will  men 
with  starving  families  continue  to  fight  if  they  can 
feed  their  families  by  stopping  fighting. 

Let  us  then  examine  a  little  in  detail  the  food 
situation  of  the  Allies  and  the  United  States,  even 
going  to  that  dangerous  extreme,  for  a  writer  hop- 
ing to  be  read,  of  using  a  few  figures.  For  if  we 
limit  ourselves  simply  to  a  generalized  statement 


THE   FOOD   PROBLEM  5 

of  the  condition  and  need  we  cannot  point  out  in 
any  precise  terms  just  what  we  must  do,  and  how 
do  it,  to  meet  our  duty  in  this  matter  as  a  nation  and 
as  individuals. 

Bread  has  not  infrequently  been  referred  to  as 
the  staff  of  life.  But  it  really  is.  We  of  the  Re- 
lief Commission  found  it  so  in  feeding  Belgium. 
The  loudest  call  of  the  people,  their  principal 
anxiety,  and  our  first  care,  all  converged  on  wheat. 
The  German  experience,  as  well  as  the  Belgian  one, 
has  shown  that  a  dietetic  regimen  for  a  semi-starv- 
ing people  is  strong  or  weak,  appeasing  or  danger- 
ous, in  proportion  to  the  bread  it  contains.  If  the 
bread  ration  is  normal,  or  sufficient,  much  repres- 
sion or  substitution  can  be  used  in  the  case  of  the 
other  foods.  Thus,  considered  either  from  the 
standpoint  of  physiology  or  psychology,  seeing  to 
the  bread  supply  is  the  matter  of  first  importance  in 
the  case  of  peoples  living  on  short  rations  and  get- 
ting occasional  glimpses  into  the  abyss  of  starvation. 

The  cereals,  then,  should  have  first  consideration 
in  the  analysis  of  the  Allied  food  situation.  And 
all  the  cereals  should  be  considered,  not  only  those 
more  strictly  to  be  called  bread-grains,  but  also 
those  chiefly  used  as  feed-grains  for  animals;  first, 
because  in  a  pinch  such  as  the  present  one,  a  much 
larger  use  than  usual  of  the  feed-grains  can  be  made 
for  human  consumption  by  mixing  flour  made  from 


6  THE   FOOD    PROBLEM 

them  with  wheat  flour  for  the  bread,  and,  second, 
because  on  the  availability  of  the  feed-grains  rests 
the  production  of  meat,  animal  fats  and  dairy  prod- 
ucts which,  with  sugar,  are  the  other  staples  of  diet. 

The  annual  pre-war  production  of  the  cereals, 
wheat,  corn,  oats,  barley  and  rye,  of  the  Western 
Allies  (the  United  Kingdom,  France,  Belgium  and 
Italy)  averaged,  taking  the  three  harvests  imme- 
diately preceding  the  war  as  basis,  about  one  and 
a  half  billion  bushels  annually.  The  annual  con- 
sumption in  the  same  period  of  these  peoples 
amounted  to  nearly  two  and  a  quarter  billions. 
But  their  production  this  year,  because  of  lessened 
man-power  available  for  the  farms  and  consequent 
lessened  acreage  —  in  France  the  acreage  is  les- 
sened by  this  and  by  the  actual  loss  of  land  to 
the  Germans  by  one-third  —  and  lessened  yield  per 
acre  —  also  partly  because  of  absence  of  fertilizer  — 
will  fall  short  of  the  pre-war  average  by  half  a 
million  bushels.  In  France,  indeed,  the  wheat  pro- 
duction this  year  is  hardly  more  than  one-half  the 
normal. 

The  situation  as  regards  the  production  of  meat, 
animal  fats  and  dairy  products  is  an  equally  serious 
one.  The  herds  of  the  Allies  have  been  seriously 
cut  into  since  the  war  began  by  the  lessened  produc- 
tion and  import  (because  of  shipping  shortage)  of 
feed  grains  and  fodder  for  their  support,  and  by 


THE   FOOD   PROBLEM  7 

the  necessity  of  eating  into  the  capital  stock  to  meet 
the  pressing  demands  for  an  increased  ration  of 
meat  and  animal  fat  of  millions  of  men  turned  from 
light  or  sedentary  work  to  the  severe  physical  exer- 
tion of  the  army  or  the  war  factories.  This  reduc- 
tion of  the  herds  for  these  causes  means  a  lessened 
reproduction  of  animals,  with  consequent  increased 
lessening  of  the  natural  replacement  of  the  herds 
themselves,  creating  thus  the  proverbial  vicious 
circle. 

The  cattle,  sheep  and  hogs  of  the  Western  Allies 
in  19 1 3  were  over  a  hundred  million  head.  At  the 
beginning  of  this  year  they  were  estimated  at  about 
seventy-five  million.  If  the  decline  in  France  con- 
tinues through  all  this  year  at  the  rate  followed  since 
the  beginning  of  the  war,  France  will  have  but 
twenty-six  million  head  at  the  end  of  the  year,  as 
compared  with  thirty-eight  million  before  the  war. 
She  has  lost  16%  per  cent  of  her  cattle,  33  per  cent 
of  her  sheep  and  38  per  cent  of  her  swine  since  the 
war  began.  And  yet  she  fights,  and  gloriously !  Is 
there  any  doubt  that  we  shall  help  feed  her  ? 

In  1 91 3  the  Western  Allies  imported  one  and  a 
half  billion  pounds  of  animal  fat  (in  terms  of  fat 
content).  In  normal  times  the  dairy  fat  supply  to 
the  Allies  arose  to  a  large  extent  from  Russia,  now 
cut  off,  and  from  Scandinavia,  Holland,  Denmark, 
and  Switzerland,  the  supplies  from  which  are  now 


8  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

going,  under  German  pressure,  largely  to  Germany. 

Finally,  as  to  sugar  there  is  also  a  serious  situa- 
tion to  face.  Before  the  war  the  Western  Allies 
were  consuming  annually  about  three  million  tons 
and  producing  considerably  less  than  half  of  it. 
France,  Italy  and  Belgium  indeed  produced  a  little 
more  than  they  consumed,  but  England  with  an 
annual  consumption  of  two  million  tons  produced 
no  sugar  at  all.  However,  the  large  balance  of 
production  over  consumption  of  Germany  and  Aus- 
tria-Hungary, and  the  smaller  one  of  Russia, 
France,  Italy,  Belgium  and  Holland,  sufficed  to  sup- 
play  a  large  part,  seventy  per  cent  to  be  specific,  of 
England's  needs.  She  found  the  rest  in  Java, 
Mauritius,  the  West  Indies  (excluding  Cuba)  and 
South  America  to  the  extent  of  16%  per  cent;  in 
Cuba  and  the  United  States,  8  per  cent;  and  from 
other  scattering  sources  5%  per  cent. 

As  a  result  of  the  war  the  European  production 
of  sugar  has  been  greatly  lessened.  For  this  year, 
the  total  crop  is  estimated,  on  the  basis  of  the 
acreage  planted,  at  little  more  than  four  million 
tons.  This  is  less  than  one-half  the  crop  of 
19 1 3-14.  The  effect  of  this  decrease  and  of  the 
war  situation  generally  is  to  cut  off  almost  entirely 
England's  supply  from  Europe,  for  the  other  Allies, 
France,  Belgium  and  Italy,  from  being  a  little  more 
than  self-supporting  as  to  sugar,  are  reduced  now 


THE   FOOD   PROBLEM  9 

to  calling  on  the  outside  world  for  approximately 
two-thirds  of  their  needs,  so  radically  has  their 
production  been  cut  down. 

So  much  for  a  swift  examination  of  the  actual 
present  situation  of  our  Western  European  Allies. 
They  need  help,  and  need  it  badly,  and  it  can  come 
only  from  us.  What  then  is  our  own  situation? 
In  what  position  are  we  to  meet  the  need? 

The  United  States  is  the  greatest  food-producing 
country  in  the  world.  We  have  a  larger  absolute 
acreage  in  crops  than  any  other  nation,  except  possi- 
bly China.  This  acreage  (320,000,000  acres)  is 
nearly  equal  to  that  of  the  peace-time  acreage  of  all 
Europe,  excluding  Russia  (354,150,000  acres). 
Our  total  annual  production  of  cereals  (bread  and 
feed-grains  together)  averaged  four  billion  and  eight 
hundred  million  bushels  (average  of  crops  of  191 1, 
19 12  and  191 3),  while  the  total  peace-time  average 
for  all  the  European  countries  together,  except  Rus- 
sia, is  almost  exactly  the  same. 

Similarly,  figures  might  be  given  to  show  our 
enormous  production  of  meat  and  animal  products : 
last  year,  for  example,  it  was  over  twenty  billions 
of  pounds.  But  there  is  no  especial  significance  in 
these  comparisons  beyond  that  of  their  indication 
of  our  interesting  magnitude  as  a  food-producing 
land. 

What  will  be  more  to  the  point,  and  is  really 


IO  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

needed,  is  a  comparison  of  our  production  with  our 
consumption.  However  impressive  the  figures  of 
our  output,  they  do  not  so  much  interest  the  world 
outside,  nor  in  particular  do  they  carry  any  comfort 
to  our  Allies,  if  there  is  not  indicated  in  them  the 
fact  that  we  produce  more  than  we  consume.  We 
are  a  large  nation,  and  a  young,  vigorous  and  grow- 
ing one.  Is  our  appetite  and  our  need  of  food  so 
great  that  we  eat  all  we  raise?  And  if  we  do  not, 
do  we  leave  uneaten  enough  to  make  up  that  de- 
ficiency between  the  imperative  needs  of  our  Allies 
and  their  production?  In  the  precise  answer  to 
these  questions  we  find  our  problem  stated  in  exact 
terms.     Hence  we  must  again  use  a  few  figures. 

Whatever  our  annual  production  has  been,  the 
important  thing  at  the  moment  is  the  production  of 
191 7.  Fortunately,  the  crops  for  this  year  are  now 
so  assured  that  figures  can  be  given,  with  close 
accuracy,  of  the  amount  of  each  kind  of  cereal  we 
may  expect  to  harvest,  or  have  already  harvested 
this  year.  (The  figures  given  are  the  government 
estimates  of  September.)  Our  wheat  crop  will  be 
about  668,000,000  bushels;  our  corn  crop  about 
3,248,000;  our  oats  about  1,533,332,000;  our  barley 
204,000,000  and  our  rye  56,000,000.  Roughly,  a 
total  of  five  billion  seven  hundred  million  bushels 
of  bread  and  feed  grains.  To  the  great  advantage 
of  ourselves  and  our  Allies,  this  is  a  crop,  taken  as 


THE    FOOD    PROBLEM  II 

a  total,  materially  larger  than  our  annual  average. 
The  excess,  however,  is  composed  of  feed-grains  and 
not  bread-grains.  It  is  in  particular  our  bumper 
crops  of  corn  and  oats  this  year  that  run  up  the 
total.  Our  wheat  crop  is,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  be- 
low the  average,  which  is  about  800,000,000  bushels. 

Our  average  normal  annual  consumption  of  wheat 
has  been  590,304,000;  of  corn,  2,653,698,000;  of 
oats,  1,148,713,000;  of  barley,  178,829,000;  and  of 
rye,  35,866,000;  a  total  of  4,607,410,000. 

Thus,  if  we  continue  to  consume  our  cereals  as 
in  pre-war  time,  we  should  have  out  of  this  year's 
crop  a  surplus  of  about  eighty  million  bushels  of 
wheat  and  one  billion  bushels  of  the  other  cereals 
taken  together. 

If  we  compare  now  the  actual  figures  (obtained 
from  official  sources,  and  as  nearly  accurate  as  may 
be  had)  of  the  probable  cereal  production  of  the 
Western  Allies  for  the  year,  together  with  those  of 
their  normal  consumption,  with  the  figures  just 
quoted,  we  shall  see  clearly  and  exactly  the  situa- 
tion. 

The  production  of  the  Allies  this  year  is  closely 
estimated  as  follows :  Wheat,  393,770,000  bushels ; 
other  cereals,  567,016,000  bushels.  Their  normal 
consumption  is:  wheat,  974,485,000;  other  cereals, 
1,239,791,000. 

That  they  may  have  a  normal  consumption  until 


12  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

the  next  harvest,  therefore,  they  must  import  in  the 
next  twelve  months  a  total  of  about  580,000,000 
bushels  of  wheat  and  673,000,000  bushels  of  other 
cereals.  Of  this  they  can  probably  obtain  from 
Canada  (on  basis  of  the  Canadian  crop  estimates 
for  this  year,  and  the  known  Canadian  normal  con- 
sumption) about  120,000,000  bushels  of  wheat  and 
119,000,000  bushels  of  other  cereals.  This  leaves 
them  to  obtain  from  us,  if  possible,  about  460,- 
000,000  bushels  of  wheat  and  554,000,000  bushels 
of  other  cereals. 

Comparing  these  figures  of  Allied  needs  from 
us  with  the  figures  of  our  probable  export  surplus 
on  basis  of  normal  consumption,  we  find  ourselves 
face  to  face  with  an  easy  solution  —  as  far  as 
grain  goes;  grain  ships  are  another  matter  —  of 
the  situation  as  regards  the  "  other  cereals,"  of 
which  we  have  more  than  enough  to  meet  the  neces- 
sity, but  with  what,  at  first  glance,  seems  an  im- 
possible situation  as  regards  wheat  —  for  which 
read  bread,  with  all  of  its  significance  as  the  very 
fundamental,  the  indispensable,  basis  of  the  daily 
ration.  How  are  we  —  and  our  Allies  —  to  meet 
this  "  impossible  situation  "  ? 

But  the  trouble  is  not  with  wheat  alone.  We  have 
already  pointed  out  in  general  terms  the  serious 
situation  of  the  Allies  as  to  the  other  staples,  meat, 
fats,  dairy  products  and  sugar.     We  do  not  want  to 


THE   FOOD   PROBLEM  1 3 

load  this  paper  with  figures  and  hence  shall  attempt 
no  such  detailed  analysis  of  the  situation  as  regards 
these  staples,  as  that  just  undertaken  of  the  cereals. 
But  a  few  statements  will  lend  some  definiteness  to 
the  situation. 

The  cutting  down  of  the  meat  production  of  the 
Allies  and  their  limitation  as  to  import  from  other 
sources  than  American  ones,  is  revealed  by  the 
enormous  growth  of  American  meat  exports,  most 
of  which  have  gone  to  the  Western  Allies,  since  the 
beginning  of  the  war.  Our  annual  average  for  the 
three  years  just  before  the  war  was  493,848,000 
pounds;  for  the  year  ending  June  30,  1916,  it  was 
1,339,193,000.  These  figures  do  not  include  pork 
products,  the  exports  of  which  have  gone  up  from 
a  billion  pounds  a  year  before  the  war  to  a  billion 
and  a  half  pounds  for  the  year  ending  June  30, 
19 1 6. 

This  demand  for  meat  will  not  lessen  as  the  war 
goes  on;  it  will  increase.  And  it  will  continue  for 
some  years  after  the  war,  because  the  reduction  of 
the  European  herds  cannot  be  made  good  in  a  day, 
nor  in  a  year,  after  peace  comes. 

This  growing  scarcity  for  native  animals  and 
animal  products  among  our  Allies,  and  their  de- 
pendence on  us,  is  evidenced  also  by  the  export 
figures  for  dairy  products.  Our  annual  average 
export  of  butter  for  the  three  years  before  the  war 


14  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

was  four  and  a  half  million  pounds,  of  cheese  three 
and  three-quarter  millions,  and  of  condensed  milk 
about  eighteen  millions.  For  the  year  ending  June 
30,  19 1 7,  it  was:  butter,  nearly  twenty-seven  mil- 
lion pounds ;  cheese  sixty-six  million ;  and  condensed 
milk,  nearly  two  hundred  and  sixty  million  pounds ! 
Finally,  another  word  as  to  sugar.  We  have  seen 
that  the  war  has  greatly  reduced  the  production  of 
France,  Italy  and  Belgium  (England,  of  course, 
produces  none)  and  has  forced  all  the  Allies  away 
from  most  of  their  usual  sources  of  supply  and  made 
them  turn  for  help  to  the  United  States  and  to  our 
own  usual  sources  of  import.  For  we  have  never 
produced  in  our  own  country  and  possessions  (the 
Philippines,  Hawaii  and  Porto  Rico)  much  more 
than  half  the  amount  consumed  by  us.  We  have 
relied  on  Cuba  to  make  up  our  deficiency.  Our  an- 
nual consumption  is  about  four  million  tons,  while 
the  normal  total  production  of  the  United  States 
and  its  possessions,  Cuba  and  the  other  West  Indies, 
in  pre-war  times  was  about  four  and  a  half  million 
tons.  Fortunately  there  has  been,  since  the  begin- 
ning of  the  war,  an  increase  in  production  in  these 
countries,  due  to  the  spur  of  the  increased  European 
demand,  of  about  a  million  tons.  But  from  the 
present  total  the  Allies  need  to  draw  at  least  a  mil- 
lion and  three-quarter  tons;  perhaps  two  millions 
this  year.     In  other  words,  we  and  the  Allies  need 


THE   FOOD   PROBLEM  I 5 

to  draw  about  six  million  tons  from  sources  pro- 
ducing about  five  and  a  half  millions;  a  problem 
in  arithmetic  —  and  eating! 

We  have  outlined  one  phase,  the  international 
one,  of  the  food  problem.  But  there  is  another.  It 
is  the  national,  or  domestic  one^  This  ties  up 
closely,  of  course,  with  the  wider  aspect  of  the 
problem.  Indeed  it  is  chiefly  immediately  caused  by 
the  attempt  at  provisioning  the  Allies,  in  the  uncon- 
trolled manner  in  which  the  attempt  has  been  made 
from  the  beginning  of  the  war  up  to  now.  The 
more  nearly  the  Allies  —  and  the  European  neu- 
trals, with  their  underground  pipes  into  Germany 
—  have  come  to  being  fed  from  America,  in  the 
unregulated  way  so  far  in  vogue,  the  more  acute 
and  larger  has  grown  the  domestic  problem.  It 
reveals  itself  most  readily,  perhaps,  by  a  simple  in- 
spection of  home  prices  for  home  products  and  a 
comparison  of  them  as  they  stand  today  with  them 
as  they  stood  before  the  war. 

Taking  an  average  of  the  retail  prices  for  the 
five  years  just  before  the  war  as  a  basis,  the  prices 
of  various  familiar  foods  on  July  15,  19 17,  showed 
the  following  increases:  cornmeal  115  per  cent; 
flour  no  per  cent;  potatoes  no  per  cent;  lard  81% 
per  cent;  bacon  70  per  cent;  pork  chops  66  per 
cent;  round  steak  65  per  cent;  ham  64  per  cent; 
sugar  53  per  cent;  sirloin  steak  51  per  cent;  rib 


I 6  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

roast  47  per  cent;  hens  41  per  cent;  milk  2j1/>  per 
cent;  butter  26%  per  cent;  eggs  24%  per  cent. 

But  the  whole  story  is  not  told  by  such  a  simple 
comparison.  The  rate  of  increase  has  not  been  an 
even  one.  It  was  nearly  a  year  after  the  war  be- 
gan before  a  permanent  tendency  for  prices  to 
rise  asserted  itself,  and  even  then  the  advances  for 
most  commodities  were  rather  small.  Wheat  and 
flour,  and  hence  bread,  however,  were  notable  excep- 
tions. But,  by  July,  191 6,  the  wholesale  prices, 
as  compared  with  those  of  191 4,  show  that  almost  all 
the  most  important  commodities  cost  from  fifty  to 
one  hundred  per  cent  more  than  in  19 14.  Since 
then  the  prices  have  continued  to  advance,  and  very 
notably  in  the  successive  months  of  this  year.  For 
example,  the  retail  price  of  sirloin  steak  has  ad- 
vanced from  27.6  cents  a  pound  on  January  15, 
1917,  to  32.8  cents  on  June  15;  of  bacon  from  29.6 
cents  to  42.5  cents;  of  ham  from  30.6  cents  to  39.1 
cents;  of  lard  from  21.4  to  28  cents;  flour  (% 
bbl.  bag)  from  $1,369  to  $1.973 ;  cornmeal  4.0  to  5.5 
cents;  potatoes  (peck)  from  58.7  to  96.0  cents; 
sugar  8.0  to  9.3  cents. 

The  price  of  wheat  per  bushel  was  $1,071  on. 
August  1,  1916,  and  on  August  1,  1917,  $2,289; 
corn  advanced  from  79.4  cents  to  $1,966;  barley 
from  59.3  cents  to  $1,145  >  rYe  83.4  cents  to  $1.781 ; 
potatoes  from  95.4  cents  to  $1,708.    That  is,  for 


THE   FOOD   PROBLEM  \"J 

each  of  these  important  commodities,  with  the  single 
exception  of  white  potatoes,  the  prices  have  more 
than  doubled  within  the  last  year.  Where  are  they 
going?     When  are  they  going  to  stop? 

These  terrible  present  prices  of  all  commodities 
weigh  heavily  upon  the  consumers,  especially  on 
those  who  are  on  a  monthly  salary  or  a  day  wage; 
and  these  constitute  the  greater  proportion  of  the 
population.  It  is  true  there  have  been  advances  in 
wages.  In  some  cases,  several  successive  advances. 
But  these  altogether  seldom  amount  to  more  than 
twenty-five  per  cent,  and  therefore  they  are  not  at 
all  in  proportion  to  the  increased  cost  of  foodstuffs. 
These  exaggerated  prices  have  aroused  general 
alarm  and  created  wide-spread  belief  that  serious 
trouble  is  likely  to  confront  us  in  the  coming  winter 
unless  relief  is  arranged  for. 

There  may  be  —  and  undoubtedly  are  —  several 
causes  contributing  to  this  excessive  price  increase, 
but  the  fundamental  cause  is  certainly  the  unregu- 
lated way  in  which  the  extraordinary  demand  from 
our  Allies  and  the  European  neutrals  for  all  essen- 
tial commodities  has  been  met.  One  of  the  con- 
tributing causes  has  been  "  hoarding,"  either  by  the 
householder  buying  an  unusual  amount  ahead  of 
his  needs,  or,  and  much  more  seriously,  by  the 
large  purchases  of  speculators,  and  the  holding  of 
these  purchases  against  the  inevitable  increase  in 


l8  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

price.  These  purchases  and  holdings  themselves 
help  to  make  the  increase  inevitable.  There  has 
been,  too,  undoubtedly,  a  certain  amount  of  co- 
operation among  men  handling  certain  commodities 
to  the  deliberate  end  of  advancing  prices  and  thus 
increasing  profits. 

One  part  of  our  domestic  problem,  then,  is  that 
of  effecting  by  one  means  or  another  a  decrease  and 
stabilization  of  prices.  This  presupposes  a  correc- 
tive for  hoarding  and  manipulation ;  for  "  profiteer- 
ing/' generally.  Another  part  —  which  is  also  a 
part  of  the  international  problem  —  is  the  organiza- 
tion of  our  food  production  and  use  so  as  to  create 
the  surplus  needed  for  supplying  our  Allies,  and 
the  regulation,  in  connection  with  the  Allied  gov- 
ernments, of  the  supplying  of  this  surplus  in  a  man- 
ner so  as  not  to  force  up  too  dangerously  our  home 
prices.  Heretofore  the  Allies  have  made  their  pur- 
chases in  our  markets  in  competition  both  with  each 
other  and  with  the  buyers  for  our  own  homes. 
And,  finally,  there  is  another  part,  also  more  inter- 
national than  domestic  in  aspect,  which  is  to  create 
an  effective  check  against  an  over-supply  to  neu- 
trals —  with  their  dubious  connections.  Our  food 
problem  is,  thus,  after  all  just  one  big  problem, 
domestic  and  international  at  once. 

So  far  it  has  been  all  "  problem."  What  of  the 
"  solution  "  ? 


CHAPTER  II 

FOOD   ADMINISTRATION 

The  solution  is  food  conservation;  or,  better, 
food  administration.  For  food  conservation,  as  a 
term,  is  sometimes  used  to  denote  only  that  part 
of  the  general  organization,  control  and  economical 
use  of  food  which  is  chiefly  indicated  by  the  last 
phrase;  that  is,  the  general  technic  and  details  of 
the  economic  use,  preservation,  substitution,  etc.,  of 
food  in  the  household,  public  eating  places  and  re- 
tail shops.  The  situation  involves,  however,  much 
more  than  this  food  conservation,  sensu  strictu. 
It  demands  a  food  conservation  of  the  broadest  sort, 
involving  administrative,  educational,  co-operative, 
compelled  and  voluntary  activities  of  wide  diversity 
and  application ;  in  a  word,  on  an  intelligent,  organ- 
ized, vigorous  food  administration.  Or,  as  it  may 
now  be  written,  Food  Administration. 

For  the  people  of  this  country  have  called  for  an 
organized  food  control,  just  as  the  people  of  Italy, 
France  and  England  each  successively  saw  the 
necessity,  called  for  and  were  given  it  —  and  the 
people  in  Germany  were  given  it  without  calling 

19 


20  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

for  it.  Almost  certainly  none  of  these  peoples  could 
have  maintained  itself  in  the  war  without  govern- 
mental food  control.  And  so  our  people  have  got, 
as  hoped-for  solution  of  their  problem,  a  United 
States  Food  Administration.  What  is  it?  What 
may  it  do?     What  can  it  do?     What  is  it  doing? 

On  August  8th  of  this  year,  just  four  months 
after  our  entrance  into  the  war,  Congress  passed 
the  "  food  control  bill "  introduced  in  the  House  on 
June  nth.  The  delay  in  passage  of  the  bill  was 
chiefly  due  to  a  reluctant  Senate.  On  August  ioth 
President  Wilson  signed  the  bill,  and  on  the  same  day 
appointed  Herbert  Hoover  to  be  his  representative 
as  head  of  the  Food  Administration  with  the  title  of 
Food  Administrator.  England's  food  head,  at  pres- 
ent Lord  Rhondda,  is  officially  entitled  Food  Con- 
troller ;  France's  administrator,  M.  Violette,  is  called 
Ministre  du  Ravitaillement ;  Italy's,  Onererole  G. 
Canepa,  is  known  as  Commissario  Approwizione- 
mente.  On  August  12th  Mr.  Hoover  formally  an- 
nounced the  policy  and  general  plans  of  the  Food 
Administration. 

It  should  be  interesting  and  profitable  to  present 
here  a  brief  analytical  summary  of  the  bill. 

Congressman  Lever,  chairman  of  the  House 
Agricultural  Committee,  in  introducing  the  bill,  de- 
scribed its  intent  as  follows: 

"  It  aims  to  facilitate  and  clear  the  channels  of 


THE   FOOD    PROBLEM  21 

distribution  to  prevent  hoarding;  to  prevent  wilful 
destruction  of  necessaries  in  order  to  enhance  the 
prices  or  restrict  the  supply  thereof;  to  eliminate 
injurious  speculation;  to  regulate  exchanges  and 
boards  of  trade  in  order  to  prohibit  undue  fluctua- 
tion of  prices,  unjust  market  manipulation,  or  un- 
fair or  misleading  market  quotations;  to  reduce 
waste,  including  the  power  to  regulate  or  completely 
to  prohibit  the  use  of  cereals  in  the  manufacture  of 
alcoholic  beverages;  and  to  stimulate  production  by 
securing  the  farmer  a  reasonable  profit  guaranteed 
by  the  government,  and  a  free  and  open  market  for 
his  products,  unrestricted  by  manipulation  and  un- 
controlled by  gambling  operations." 

The  act  authorizes  a  governmental  control  over 
the  supply,  distribution  and  movement  of  all  food, 
feeds  and  fuels,  and  all  machinery,  implements  and 
equipment  required  for  their  actual  production. 
Any  agency  necessary  to  carry  out  their  control  may 
be  created;  any  existing  department  or  agency  of 
the  government  may  be  used. 

All  destruction  of  food  or  fuel  for  the  purpose  of 
enhancing  prices  is  prohibited;  all  wilful  waste,  all 
hoarding,  all  monopolization,  all  discrimination,  and 
unfair  practices,  all  unjust  charges  in  handling  and 
dealing  in  food  and  fuel,  and  all  combining  to 
restrict  the  production,  supply  or  distribution  are 
made  unlawful. 


22  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

All  manufacture,  importation,  storage  and  dis- 
tribution can  be  carried  on  only  by  license  when  the 
President  shall  deem  it  essential  to  institute  such 
licensing.  Exception  to  the  license  requirements 
is  made  in  favour  of  farmers,  co-operative  associa- 
tions dealing  with  products  produced  by  their  mem- 
bers, and  retail  dealers  whose  business  is  less  than 
$100,000  a  year. 

Food,  feeds  and  fuel  necessary  for  the  army, 
navy  and  public  service  may  be  requisitioned. 
Hoarded  supplies  may  be  seized,  sold  and  dis- 
tributed. The  government  may  purchase,  store  and 
sell  at  reasonable  prices,  wheat,  flour,  meal,  beans 
and  potatoes.  Factories,  packing  houses,  pipe  lines 
and  fuel  mines  may  be  taken  over  and  operated  by 
the  government  for  any  time  necessary  to  secure 
adequate  supplies  for  the  public  service. 

Regulations  may  be  issued  to  prevent  speculation, 
manipulation,  enhancement,  depression  or  fluctua- 
tion of  prices,  and  to  control  the  operation  of  ex- 
changes, boards  of  trade,  and  similar  organizations 
dealing  in  food,  feeds  and  fuel. 

For  the  purpose  of  stimulating  production  the 
government  may  guarantee  for  a  period  of  not 
longer  than  eighteen  months  a  price  which  will  in- 
sure the  producer  a  reasonable  profit.  The  price  of 
the  19 18  crop  of  No.  1  Northern  Spring  wheat  is 
fixed  at  two  dollars  per  bushel  at  principal  interior 


THE   FOOD   PROBLEM  23 

markets.  The  importation  tariff  on  food,  feeds  and 
fuel  may  be  increased  if  considered  necessary  to 
prevent  undue  importation  from  other  countries. 

No  foods  or  feeds  shall  be  used  for  the  produc- 
tion of  distilled  spirits  for  beverages.  No  distilled 
spirits  may  be  imported.  All  distilled  spirits  in 
bond  or  stock  are  commandeered  and  any  of  these 
stocks  may  be  re-distilled  to  meet  the  requirements 
of  the  government  in  the  manufacture  of  munitions 
and  military  and  hospital  supplies. 

Particular  powers  are  given  in  regard  to  the  pro- 
duction and  dealing  in  coal  and  coke.  Prices  may 
be  fixed.  If  these  prices  are  not  conformed  with, 
the  mine  or  plant  and  business  of  the  offending  pro- 
ducer may  be  taken  over.  If  deemed  necessary  the 
producer  of  coal  and  coke  may  be  required  to  sell 
solely  to  the  government,  and  the  government  may 
act  as  the  sole  dealer  in  the  resale  of  the  supplies. 
The  government  is  authorized  to  purchase  nitrate 
of  soda  to  increase  agricultural  production  in  19 17 
and  1918  and  sell  this  fertilizer  for  cash. 

In  all  cases  where  a  commodity  or  operating  plant 
is  requisitioned  just  compensation  is  to  be  made. 

Appropriations  are  made  to  carry  on  the  business 
operations  authorized  in  the  act,  and  for  the  special 
purchase  of  nitrate  of  soda,  and  for  the  general 
expense  of  the  Food  Administration. 

The  statutory  powers  of  the  Food  Administra- 


24  THE    FOOD    PROBLEM 

tion  seem,  at  first  examination,  to  be  all  that  are 
needed.  Their  enumeration  answers  the  query: 
what  may  be  done.  What  can  be  done  is,  of  course, 
another  matter.  The  Food  Administration  may 
stimulate  production;  can  it?  It  may  prevent  all 
hoarding,  manipulation  and  profiteering ;  again,  can 
it?  The  answer  does  not  depend  on  the  Food 
Administrator  alone.  It  depends  much  more,  in- 
deed, on  the  people  of  the  country.  We  are  patriots 
enough  to  stand  up  with  the  right  music;  to  float 
the  flag;  and  to  yell  when  the  soldiers  go  by.  We 
are  even  patriots  enough  to  offer  our  lives  to  our 
country.  Are  we  patriots  enough  to  stand  without 
flinching  when  our  pockets  and  appetites  are 
touched?    We  shall  see. 

The  Food  Administration  has  made  a  vigorous 
beginning.  The  long,  vexing,  injuring  delay  in  the 
passage  of  the  bill  was  not  all  lost  time.  The  Food 
Administrator  (to  be)  was  getting  a  good  ready. 
He  made  the  beginnings  of  his  volunteer  organiza- 
tion; he  found  temporary  quarters,  beginning  with 
three  rooms  in  a  Washington  hotel,  and  moving 
about  with  his  growing  staff  as  eviction  followed 
eviction  from  other  temporarily  loaned  resting 
places.  The  day  after  the  bill  was  signed  things 
began  to  happen  officially;  their  beginnings  had  al- 
ready been  made  unofficially. 

As  wheat  —  always  to  be  thought  of  in  terms  of 


THE   FOOD    PROBLEM  2$ 

bread  —  is  of  first  importance,  so  its  consideration 
came  first  on  the  program.  At  this  writing,  one 
month  after  the  passage  of  the  bill,  a  "  fair  price  " 
of  $2.20  a  bushel  nas  been  fixed  for  this  year's  crop 
by  a  committee  selected  by  the  President,  composed 
of  producers,  wheat  handlers,  consumers  and  rep- 
resentatives of  labour.  Congress  had  already  fixed 
by  the  terms  of  the  Bill  a  price  of  two  dollars  per 
bushel  for  the  crop  of  1918.  It  was  therefore  nec- 
essary that  a  price  not  less  than  that  be  fixed  for 
this  year's  crop  in  order  to  prevent  hoarding  of 
the  19 1 7  wheat  until  next  year. 

A  great  Food  Administration  Grain  Corporation 
and  a  Food  Administration  Milling  Division  have 
been  formed  to  control  the  handling,  purchase,  sale, 
distribution  and  export  of  wheat  and  flour.  As  a 
first  and  immediate  result  of  the  work  of  these  two 
co-operating  bodies  of  the  Food  Administration, 
flour  is  today  being  sold  to  the  consumer  at  three 
dollars  a  barrel  less  than  it  was  before  their  organi- 
zation, and  the  producer  is  getting  an  increase  of 
price  for  his  wheat  equivalent  to  three  dollars  a 
barrel  as  interpreted  in  flour.  That  is,  a  middleman 
profiteering  of  six  dollars  a  barrel  has  been  wiped 
out. 

Licenses  are  required  (as  from  September  1 ) 
from  all  operators  of  elevators  and  all  millers  oper- 
ating mills  of  over  one  hundred  barrels  daily  ca- 


26  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

pacity.  The  first  regulations  put  into  effect  under 
this  licensing  system  were  the  requirement  of  fair 
trade  practices,  and  that  no  wheat  or  rye  should 
be  stored  in  elevators  for  any  one  except  the  Food 
Administration  for  more  than  thirty  days.  Also 
no  mill  may  sell  flour  for  shipment  farther  ahead 
than  thirty  days,  nor  may  any  mill,  except  by  spe- 
cial permission,  accumulate  or  own  more  than  the 
equivalent,  in  wheat  and  flour,  of  its  output  of 
thirty  days.  The  object  of  specific  regulation  is 
to  prevent  the  public  facilities  for  grain  market- 
ing to  be  used  for  hoarding  or  storing  for  an  ad- 
vance. 

In  the  hands  of  the  Grain  Corporation  is  lodged 
by  agreement  with  the  Allies  all  the  export  buying 
for  them.  The  buying  for  neutrals  is  also  con- 
trolled because  export  licenses  can  only  be  had  with 
the  approval  of  the  Grain  Corporation. 

The  whole,  and  the  only,  purpose  of  the  power 
and  activities  of  the  Grain  Corporation  and  the 
Milling  Division  is  to  conserve  as  effectively  as  pos- 
sible the  wheat  supply  of  this  country  for  the  use 
primarily  of  ourselves  and  Allies.  It  is  intended 
that  the  American  mills  should  handle  a  larger  part 
of  the  wheat  than  before  so  as  to  retain  the  grain 
offal  (mill  feed)  for  our  dairy  cattle,  and  also  re- 
duce the  milling  cost  per  barrel  of  flour  by  virtue  of 
the  enlarged  production.     The  miller  will  be  defi- 


THE    FOOD   PROBLEM  27 

nitely  controlled  as  to  the  amount  of  profit  per  bar- 
rel which  he  can  make. 

That  this  is  all  well  understood  and  agreed  to  by 
the  grain  men  and  millers  of  the  country  is  shown 
by  the  passage  of  the  following  resolution  by  a  large 
group  of  grain  men  representing  all  phases  of  the 
industry  after  a  conference  with  Mr.  Hoover  and 
other  representatives  of  the  Food  Administration  in 
Washington,  on  August  15. 

Realizing  that  the  operation  of  Government  control  in 
wheat  and  rye  is  essential  under  present  war  influences 
in  order  to  adequately  protect  our  home  supply  and  fur- 
nish our  Allies  with  the  aid  we  owe,  and  realizing  that 
the  establishment  of  an  efficient  government  plan  of  op- 
eration means  to  all  of  us  curtailment  of  our  business 
and  to  some  of  us  actual  retirement  from  active  business 
during  such  period,  we  do  express  our  pride  in  the  char- 
acter of  service  tendered  by  the  grain  trade  in  the  sacri- 
fice by  these  men  of  ability  who  are  placing  their  experi- 
ence and  energy  at  the  service  of  their  Government,  and 
that  we  approve  the  general  plan  of  operation  as  ex- 
plained to  us  today  as  being  sound,  workable  and  neces- 
sary, and  in  its  general  lines  it  appears  to  us  as  being  the 
most  efficient  and  just  plan  of  operation  which  we  can 
conceive. 

The  great  mass  of  the  people  in  this  country  will 
be  interested  primarily  in  the  Food  Administration's 
work  on  wheat  and  flour  from  the  point  of  view  of 
buyers  and  consumers  of  bread.  Can  bread  be 
made  cheaper  without  being  made  less  nutritious  and 
palatable?     The    Food    Administration    is    giving 


28  THE    FOOD    PROBLEM 

much  time  and  energy  to  the  bread  situation.  It 
has  a  special  division,  manned  by  a  group  of  busi- 
ness men  and  food  experts,  which  is  giving  its  whole 
attention  to  the  problem  of  cheaper  bread.  A  care- 
ful study  of  the  methods  of  commercial  and  home 
baking  is  being  made. 

The  first  result  of  an  investigation  of  thirty  bak- 
eries in  or  near  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Wash- 
ington and  Chicago  revealed  a  surprising  variation 
in  several  items  of  costs  in  commercial  bread-mak- 
ing and  distribution.  This  study  shows  clearly  that 
those  bakeries  which  have  standardized  their  product 
and  deliver  in  large  quantities  only  once  a  day  are 
making  bread  and  distributing  it  at  from  one  to  two 
cents  a  pound  cheaper  than  those  bakeries  that  make 
many  kinds  and  sizes  of  wheat  bread  and  deliver  in 
small  quantities  several  times  a  day. 

The  investigation  is  being  extended  to  about  250 
bakeries  scattered  all  over  the  country,  but  it  is  al- 
ready plain  that  one  of  the  important  factors  in  any 
reduction  of  the  price  of  bread  is  that  of  simplifica- 
tion of  baking  and  economy  of  delivery.  And  the 
Food  Administration  is  hard  at  work  with  the  com- 
mercial bakers  of  the  country  trying  to  effect  ar- 
rangements to  this  end.  It  has  engaged  the  assist- 
ance of  the  "  chain  stores,"  and  is  well  on  the  way 
to  seeing  a  cheaper  standard  loaf  put  on  the  market 
for  those  who  are  willing  to  pay  cash  and  carry  the 


THE    FOOD    PROBLEM  20, 

bread  home  for  the  sake  of  a  material  saving  of 
money. 

Another  staple  which  has  had  the  immediate  at- 
tention of  the  Food  Administration  with  swift  and 
positive  results  in  the  way  of  control  and  price  re- 
duction, is  sugar.  The  control  of  sugar  presents  a 
problem  fundamentally  different  from  that  pre- 
sented by  almost  any  other  commodity  because  of 
the  fact  that  about  fifty  per  cent  of  the  sugar  we  use 
is  imported.  In  fact  the  New  York  price  of  sugar 
is  based  primarily  on  the  conditions  of  the  Cuban 
supply.  It  is  the  intention  of  the  Food  Administra- 
tion to  try  to  arrange  a  voluntary  agreement  with 
the  Cuban  government  and  planters  to  fix  a  price  for 
Cuban  sugar  in  New  York  that  will  be  satisfactory 
to  the  Cuban  growers  and  at  the  same  time  insure 
a  fair  price  for  the  consumers  of  this  country. 
There  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  such  an  ar- 
rangement can  be  effected. 

In  the  meantime  a  satisfactory  agreement  has 
been  reached  between  the  Food  Administration  and 
the  sugar  beet  growers  of  America  —  representa- 
tives of  all  the  beet  producers  of  the  country  par- 
ticipating in  this  arrangement  by  voluntary  agree- 
ment —  by  which  the  sale  and  distribution  of  the 
entire  beet  sugar  production  of  the  United  States  are 
placed  in  the  hands  of  the  Food  Administration. 
As  a  result,  all  the  beet  sugar  of  the  country  is  to 


30  THE   FOOD    PROBLEM 

be  sold  at  a  price  not  to  exceed  7%  cents  a  pound, 
cane  basis,  at  sea-board  refining  points.  The  price 
was  9.15  cents  but  a  short  time  before  the  arrange- 
ment was  made. 

To  control  the  distribution  and  effect  a  fair  di- 
vision of  the  sugar  from  America  and  its  possessions 
and  from  Cuba  and  the  West  Indies,  an  Interna- 
tional Sugar  Committee  representing  the  Allied 
governments  and  the  United  States  has  been  formed 
which  will  have  in  its  hands  entire  charge  of  the 
purchase  and  distribution  of  all  sugar  for  this  and 
the  Allied  countries.  Three  of  the  five  members 
of  this  committee  are  Americans,  one  of  whom  rep- 
resents the  Food  Administration,  and  they  will  act 
as  a  sub-committee  to  handle  and  decide  purely 
domestic  questions  with  which  the  Allied  members 
are  not  concerned.  A  special  committee  represent- 
ing the  American  refiners  has  also  been  formed  to 
co-operate  with  the  International  Committee  in  the 
distribution  of  that  part  of  the  imported  sugar  that 
comes  to  the  refineries  in  the  United  States. 

The  control  of  the  meats  and  fats  situation  is  un- 
der way  of  organization,  but  any  statements  regard- 
ing the  course  of  the  negotiations  would  be  pre- 
mature at  time  of  this  writing  (September). 
Many  conferences  have  been  held  in  Washington 
between  officials  of  the  Food  Administration  and 
representatives  of  the  live-stock  growers  and  the 


THE   FOOD   PROBLEM  3 I 

packers,  and  carefully  elaborated  plans  are  under 
present  consideration.  The  situation  is  a  more 
complex  one  than  that  of  sugar  or  even  of  wheat, 
but  some  sort  of  early  solution  is  necessary  and  will 
be  effected. 

Besides  the  special  divisions  of  the  Food  Admin- 
istration already  referred  to  giving  their  whole  at- 
tention to  the  staples,  grain,  meats  and  sugar,  there 
are  well-developed  working  divisions,  headed  and 
largely  staffed  by  volunteers, —  as  are  the  grain, 
meat  and  sugar  divisions, —  devoting  their  atten- 
tion to  wholesale  groceries  and  their  distribution; 
to  fish,  to  canned  goods,  to  potatoes,  to  dairy  prod- 
ucts, and  to  fresh  fruit  and  vegetables. 

All  of  these  are  struggling  with  the  general  prob- 
lems of  monopolization,  hoarding,  injurious  specu- 
lation and  manipulation,  and  distribution,  and  in  ad- 
dition each  has  its  own  particular  problems  peculiar 
to  the  special  commodities  and  trade  in  its  purview. 
In  all  cases  the  work  is  moving  forward  on  the 
basis  of  a  large  degree  of  co-operation  and  volun- 
tary agreement  on  the  part  of  the  trade  interested. 
Literally  scores  of  conferences  have  been  held  be- 
tween representatives  of  the  Food  Administration 
and  representatives  of  the  trades,  and  a  steady  ad- 
vance toward  the  desired  ends  of  the  Administration 
and  the  advantage  of  the  people  as  a  whole  in  their 
great  war  undertaking  has  been,  and  is  being,  made. 


32  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

The  two  cardinal  principles  guiding  all  this  work 
and  that  are  being  urged  on  the  producers,  traders 
and  consumers  alike  are  economy  and  service,  to 
the  end  that  the  foodstuffs  of  the  land  may  be  dis- 
tributed as  equitably  as  possible  and  at  the  lowest 
prices  consistent  with  justice  to  all  concerned.  The 
war  —  and  it  is  a  relentless  war  —  that  the  Food 
Administration  is  carrying  on  in  its  work  with  the 
handlers  of  food  is  against  manipulation  and  specu- 
lation, against  all  forms  of  "  profiteering."  It  is  a 
war  for  the  protection  of  the  consumer.  At  the 
same  time  the  Food  Administration  is  trying  to  ex- 
tend favour  and  aid  to  producers  along  all  lines  lead- 
ing to  stimulation  of  production.  These  include  all 
effort  possible  for  the  determination  and  mainte- 
nance of  fair  prices  for  the  produce  of  farm,  gar- 
den, orchard  and  factory,  and  the  establishment  of 
a  regular  and  stable  market. 

There  are  necessarily  other  divisions  of  the  Food 
Administration  besides  the  ones  devoted  to  special 
commodities.  There  is  a  statistical  division,  a  legal 
division,  a  transportation  division,  a  division  of 
food  use  and  scientific  research  in  food  values,  a 
division  of  labour,  and  one  of  imports,  exports  and 
embargo,  acting  in  close  connection  with  the  De- 
partments of  Agriculture,  Commerce  and  State, 
with  a  firm  grip  already  on  the  spiny  problem  of  ex- 
port to  European  neutrals  with  its  serious  corol- 


THE   FOOD    PROBLEM  33 

lary  of  —  let  us  put  it  bluntly  —  export  to  Ger- 
many. 

There  is  a  states  organization  division  connecting 
directly  with  a  federal  food  administration  in  each 
state,  directly  representing  the  Food  Administra- 
tion. Through  these  state  administrators,  who  are 
men  of  demonstrated  ability,  high  standing  and  in- 
fluence in  their  respective  states,  all  serving  as  vol- 
unteers without  compensation  for  the  duration  of 
the  war,  there  is  being  developed  co-operation  and 
effective  team  work  between  the  central  administra- 
tion at  Washington  and  the  work  in  each  state  with 
the  special  food  problems  peculiar  to  each  region. 
These  state  administrators  come  to  Washington  re- 
peatedly to  report  and  confer,  and  representatives 
from  the  states  organization  division  go  out  to  the 
various  states,  so  that  close  touch  may  be  main- 
tained with  conditions  all  over  the  country. 

Finally  there  is  a  large  and  driving  division  of 
food  conservation,  sensu  strictu. 

It  is  this  department  that  connects  the  Food  Ad- 
ministration immediately  with  all  of  the  people. 
We  are  all  consumers,  and  food  conservation,  in  its 
special  sense,  concerns  itself  primarily  with  food 
consumption.  The  primary  object  of  this  special 
part  of  the  food  conservation  campaign  is  to  bring 
about  an  intelligent  voluntary  rearrangement  of  the 
eating  habits  of  our  hundred  million  people  so  that 


34  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

the  particular  foodstuffs  most  needed  by  the  Allies 
can  be  accumulated.  This  has  to  be  done  in  the 
face  of  a  normal  surplus  —  which  has  to  be  made 
larger  —  and  by  a  people  long  accustomed  to  a  food 
use  limited  chiefly  only  by  its  cost. 

To  do  this  it  is  first  necessary  to  convince  our 
people  that  food  is  a  decisive  factor  in  the  war,  that 
the  strength  of  our  Allies  can  only  be  maintained 
by  a  food  provision  meeting  their  minimum  neces- 
sity, and  that  it  is  our  duty  and  opportunity  in  this 
war  to  insure  this  food  supply.  Food  conservation 
becomes,  then,  a  patriotic  service. 

Next,  it  is  necessary  to  point  out  how  each  house- 
hold and  public  eating-place,  and  how  each  individual 
consumer  can  really  act  so  as  to  conserve  food. 
The  details  and  special  efforts  centre  about  three 
principal  general  propositions:  the  elimination  of 
waste,  the  substitution  of  certain  foods  for  others, 
as  corn  for  wheat,  poultry  for  meat,  etc.,  and, 
finally,  an  actual  lessening  of  unnecessary  consump- 
tion. To  instruct  and  enlist  the  nation  the  already 
organized  forces  of  the  people  are  brought  into 
play.  The  special  help  of  community  centres  and 
state  organizations,  of  the  public  school  teachers, 
the  churches,  the  fraternal  orders  and  patriotic  so- 
cieties, has  been  enlisted. 

The  participation  of  the  churches  in  the  work, 
in  particular,  is  already  highly  developed.     Officially 


THE   FOOD   PROBLEM  35 

appointed  representatives,  including  some  of  the 
most  prominent  men  in  each  of  the  denominations, 
have  met  with  the  Food  Administrator  and  his  staff 
in  Washington,  and  after  coming  to  a  clear  under- 
standing of  the  situation  have  tendered  the  largest 
service  of  their  organizations.  Eighteen  men  repre- 
senting fifteen  denominations  are  continuously  in 
Washington  with  offices  in  the  Food  Administration 
buildings  giving  their  whole  time  to  the  great  cam- 
paign of  food  conservation  appeal  and  education 
among  the  forty  million  church  members  officially 
represented  by  them.  It  is  a  fine  exhibition  of  the 
patriotism  and  practical  possibilities  of  the  Ameri- 
can churches  when  appealed  to  for  national  service. 

No  less  important,  the  active  co-operation  of  the 
women  of  the  country  has  been  obtained.  Repre- 
sentatives of  all  the  great  national  organizations  of 
women  have  come  to  Washington  for  repeated  con- 
ferences. A  general  agreement  and  plan  for  co- 
operation has  been  arrived  at,  and  a  splendid  volun- 
teer staff  of  women  representing  various  special  in- 
terests and  activities  is  giving  devoted  service  to 
the  work  in  the  Washington  offices  of  the  Food 
Administration. 

A  national  lecture  bureau  has  been  organized,  as 
have  also  numerous  State  bureaus.  Work  in  home 
economics  is  being  conducted  by  experts.  Simple 
primers  and  text  books  and  lecture  course  syllabi 


36  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

for  the  public  schools  and  colleges  have  been  pre- 
pared and  issued.  Cards  specifying  the  particular 
measures  most  available  and  effective  for  food- 
saving  and  wise  food  use  in  the  homes  and  public 
eating-places  are  being  sent  broadcast,  and  pledges 
to  observe  these  suggestions  are  being  signed  by 
millions  of  households,  hotel,  restaurant,  dining-car 
and  club  managers,  and  individual  consumers. 

These  pledge  signers  are  enrolled  as  members  of 
the  Food  Administration,  and  receive  cards  of  mem- 
bership which  they  are  asked  to  display  in  their 
windows,  so  as  to  announce  their  patriotic  under- 
taking and  thus  serve  as  a  good  example  to  others. 

The  results  of  this  great  campaign  are  already 
obvious.  An  actual  food-saving,  a  food  conserva- 
tion, is  being  effected.  This  is  shown  concretely  by 
interesting  statistics  recently  collected  from  sixty 
cities  that  reveal  a  lessening  of  the  garbage  collec- 
tions by  about  12  per  cent,  as  compared  with  those 
of  last  year.  Quite  as  important,  a  psychological 
effect  is  being  produced.  Food  conservation  is 
making  the  war  real ;  it  is  inspiring  patriotism.  It 
offers  the  opportunity  for  universal  service  in  a 
great  national  endeavour;  and  it  is  creating  this 
service.  Incidentally,  it  may  mean  much  for  the 
years  after  the  war;  we  may  get  the  food-saving 
habit  —  and  the  habit  of  patriotism. 

Another  phase  of  food  administration  is  that  of 


THE    FOOD    PROBLEM  37 

the  stimulation  of  production.  Under  the  provi- 
sions of  the  so-called  "  food  survey  bill,"  signed 
on  August  10,  the  Secretary  of  Agriculture  is  au- 
thorized to  investigate  in  detail  the  actual  food  situ- 
ation in  the  country  and  to  employ  a  variety  of 
special  measures,  such  as  special  furnishing  of  seed, 
demonstrations,  and  enlarged  efforts  at  education 
for  increasing  the  food  production.  This  work  does 
not  come  under  the  immediate  control  of  Mr. 
Hoover's  organization,  but  it  is  a  matter  in  which 
the  Food  Administration  is  vitally  interested,  and 
in  which  it  will  take  every  opportunity  to  assist 
and  to  co-operate  with  the  Agricultural  Department. 
There  has  already  been  a  notable  response  of  the 
people  to  the  call  for  increased  production,  evidenced 
by  the  two  million  or  more  new  back-yard  and 
vacant-lot  gardens  planted  this  summer.  And  there 
is  plain  promise  of  increased  acreage  for  the  191 8 
crop  of  grain.  The  guaranteed  minimum  price  to 
the  farmers  of  $2.00  a  bushel  for  the  wheat  of  the 
19 1 8  crop,  fixed  by  the  food  control  bill  —  and  this 
whether  the  war  ends  before  the  harvest  with  the 
consequent  tumbling  in  price  all  over  the  world,  or 
whether  it  does  not  —  leads  experts  to  estimate  that 
our  wheat  crop  of  next  year  will  reach  a  billion 
bushels,  weather  conditions  permitting. 


CHAPTER  III 

HOW    ENGLAND,    FRANCE   AND    ITALY    ARE 
CONTROLLING   AND   SAVING   FOOD 

A  pertinent  question,  whose  answer  has  been 
as  yet  no  more  than  indicated  in  this  book,  is  that 
concerning  the  food  conservation  by  the  Allies. 
Americans  who  are  asked  to  limit  their  consumption 
of  bread,  meat  and  sugar  for  the  sake  of  supplying 
our  Allies  with  food  will  want  to  know  what  the 
Allies  themselves  are  doing  in  the  way  of  food 
economy.  That  each  of  them  has  a  governmental 
food  administration  has  already  been  said.  Each 
of  them  began  its  food  control  under  some  already 
existing  government  department.  But  each  of  them 
has  come  to  the  realization  of  the  necessity  of  set- 
ting up  what  is  essentially  an  independent  govern- 
mental organization  for  food  control. 
-  It  may  be  said  at  once  that  all  these  food  admin- 
istrations of  the  Allies  are  vigorous  ones,  and  their 
actions  drastic.  They  use  some  methods  that  will 
not  be  used  here.  They  regulate  the  food  use  in 
public  eating-places  such  as  hotels,  restaurants,  clubs, 
etc.,  by  direct  and  specific  decree  of  the  food  con- 

38 


THE   FOOD    PROBLEM  39 

troller.  And,  in  lesser  degree,  they  regulate  the 
food  use  of  the  people  in  their  homes  also  by 
government  decree.  As  regards  certain  foods  they 
practically  put  the  peoples  of  their  countries  on 
rations.  However,  they  all  place  their  greatest  re- 
liance, as  we  shall  do  here,  on  the  voluntary  co- 
operation of  the  households  to  effect  the  needed 
care  in  the  food  use  of  the  people  at  home. 

ITALY 

England  and  France  have  gone  farther  in  some 
respects  than  Italy  in  food  regulation,  but  numerous 
recent  decrees  of  the  Italian  government  show  a 
plain  tendency  to  bring  its  control  of  food  up  to  the 
standard  of  its  Allies.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the 
government  is  seriously  considering  at  the  time 
of  this  writing  (September)  the  adoption  of  a  de- 
finitive rationing  scheme  to  cover  all  the  more 
important  food  staples  such  as  bread,  meat,  fats, 
sugar,  etc.  Even  now  certain  Italian  cities  are  on 
ration  as  regards  flour  and  bread.  The  adoption 
of  such  a  system  will  carry  Italy's  control  beyond 
anything  yet  adopted  by  England  or  France. 

As  early  as  the  summer  of  191 5  Italy  took  active 
measures  to  establish  a  general  reorganization  of 
food  importing  and  distribution  under  government 
control,  and  to  authorize  governmental  requisition- 
ing of  produce  and  food  businesses,  the  fixing  of 
maximum  sale  prices  and  a  provisional  system  of 


40  THE   FOOD    PROBLEM 

rationing  applicable  to  local  centres.  Since  then 
there  has  been  a  constantly  increasing  governmental 
control  both  of  food  handling  and  food  consump- 
tion, first  administered  by  the  department  for  agri- 
culture, but  in  January  of  this  year  put  under  the 
special  supervision  of  a  Commissary  General  of 
Supplies,  an  office  filled  since  its  creation  by  Onere- 
vole  Giuseppe  Canepa,  Under  Secretary  for  Agri- 
culture. 

The  care  of  grain  and  its  milling  has  been  from 
the  beginning  a  matter  of  especial  solicitude,  as  it 
has  in  all  of  the  countries  undertaking  governmental 
food  control.  The  reason  is  fully  indicated  by  the 
single  word,  bread.  Minimum  prices  to  stimulate 
production,  maximum  prices  to  protect  the  con- 
sumer, and  requisitioning  of  native  and  imported 
cereals  to  regulate  distribution  have  all  been  pro- 
vided for.  "  Grain  Assemblies  "  have  been  insti- 
tuted in  the  various  provinces,  each  of  which  attends 
to  the  supply  and  distribution  of  cereals  and  flour 
within  the  limits  of  its  province. 

The  wheat  must  now  be  milled  at  90  per  cent 
(which  means  that  only  10  per  cent  of  the  whole 
wheat  kernel  does  not  go  into  the  flour).  The  mill- 
ing percentage  was  first  (March,  19 16)  put  at  80 
per  cent,  then  later  85  per  cent,  and  on  May  29  of 
this  year  at  90  per  cent.  It  is  the  highest  per  cent 
used  by  any  of  the  Allies,  which  means  that  Italy's 


THE   FOOD    PROBLEM  4 I 

war  bread  comes  nearer  than  either  England's  or 
France's  to  being  whole  wheat  flour. 

Bread  must  be  baked  in  the  form  of  a  smooth 
loaf  of  a  fixed  minimum  weight.  The  weight  was 
first  put  at  700  grams  (24%  ounces)  and  is  now 
250  grams  (8%  ounces).  Bread  may  not  be  put 
on  sale  or  given  for  food  until  the  day  after  it  is 
baked,  and  it  may  not  be  treated  by  special  processes 
to  keep  it  fresh.  The  time  for  baking  is  limited 
to  between  10  a.  m.  and  9  p.  m.  and  its  sale  and 
distribution  must  cease  on  week  days  at  1  p.  m. 
and  on  Sunday  at  mid-day.  No  sweet  pastries  may 
be  made.  The  manufacture  of  gluten  cakes  for  the 
sick  is  permitted,  but  the  gluten  must  be  derived 
from  the  regular  war  flour,  i.e.,  flour  from  90 
per  cent  milling. 

Especially  drastic  regulations  govern  the  use  of 
sugar.  Its  manufacture,  distribution  and  sale  are 
closely  controlled,  and  partly  actually  taken  over  by 
the  State.  The  government  is  trying  to  limit  the 
consumption  to  15,000  tons  a  month  for  the  entire 
population,  army  included,  which  means  an  allow- 
ance of  about  500  grams  (i/4o  lbs.)  a  month,  or 
thirteen  pounds  a  year  for  each  person.  We  use 
eighty  pounds  a  year  per  person !  Sugar  cards  are 
in  use  in  the  principal  cities.  The  manufacture  and 
sale  of  candies  and  sweets  of  any  kind  except  choco- 
late in  small  tablets  and  certain  medicated  pastilles 


42  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

and  lozenges  are  prohibited,  and  the  use  of  sugar 
in  any  manufactured  products  is  greatly  restricted. 
Saccharine  is  permitted  to  be  sold  and  used  as  a 
substitute  for  sugar,  and  the  government  manufac- 
tures a  mixture  of  saccharine  and  sugar  called 
"  state  sugar." 

Various  special  regulations  govern  the  slaughter- 
ing of  animals  and  the  use  of  meat.  There  is  a 
regulating  committee  in  each  province  which  de- 
termines every  now  and  then  the  limit  to  be  set  on 
meat  consumption,  by  fixing  figures  for  the  total 
number  and  weight  of  sheep  and  cattle  which  may 
be  slaughtered  for  the  immediate  needs  of  the  civil 
population  and  the  canning  of  preserved  meat.  It 
has  recently  been  decided  that  the  number  of  cattle 
to  be  slaughtered  monthly  should  be  determined  on 
the  basis  of  a  national  meat  rationing  system. 
Since  May,  191 5,  it  has  been  unlawful  to  slaughter 
calves  of  less  weight  than  200  kilograms  (440  lbs.) 
on  the  hoof,  or  swine  of  less  than  75  kilos  (165  lbs.) 
or  lambs  of  less  than  10  kilos  (22  lbs.).  The  sale 
of  fresh  meat  for  the  use  of  public  eating-places 
is  prohibited  for  two  consecutive  days  per  week. 
In  the  army  some  of  the  meat  ration  for  the  ter- 
ritorial troops  has  been  replaced  by  minestroni,  a 
soup  made  of  rice,  vegetables,  etc.  For  the  troops 
on  active  service  salt  fish  has  been  substituted  for 
part  of  the  meat  ration. 


THE   FOOD   PROBLEM  43 

The  use  of  eggs  in  the  manufacture  of  sweet 
stuffs  has  been  restricted,  and  preference  in  the  dis- 
tribution of  eggs  to  invalids,  children  and  nursing 
mothers  has  been  ordered.  Since  the  end  of  191 6 
the  exportation  of  cheese  has  been  prohibited  for 
the  sake  both  of  lessening  its  production  and  for 
restricting  certain  forms  of  hard  cheese  to  the  use 
of  the  army. 

The  control  of  public  eating-places  is  rigorous. 
The  serving  of  butter,  fresh  or  salted,  of  cream 
and  whipped  cream,  and  of  dishes  garnished  with 
eggs  is  prohibited.  Sweet  dishes  also  are  prohibited 
except  on  Thursdays  and  Fridays,  and  then  may 
be  served  only  at  dinner.  A  fixed  price  lunch  may 
not  comprise  more  than  two  dishes,  and  a  dinner 
more  than  three,  of  which  in  each  case  only  one 
may  be  a  meat  dish.  Similarly,  a  person  ordering 
a  la  carte  may  not  have  more  than  three  dishes  of 
which  but  one  may  be  meat.  All  public  eating-places 
must  hand  to  the  police  every  day  a  copy  of  their 
bill  of  fare,  and  the  whole  bill  may  not  list  more 
than  ten  dishes,  of  which  no  more  than  four  may 
be  meat.  Public  eating  places  must  close  not  later 
than  eleven  o'clock  and  may  not  open  before  dawn. 
However,  the  railway  station  restaurants  may  open 
one  hour  before  the  departure  of  the  first  train  and 
remain  open  one  hour  after  the  departure  of  the 
last  train,  provided  that  the  only  entrance  to  the  res- 


44  THE    FOOD    PROBLEM 

taurant  is   from  inside  the  station,  thus  limiting 
the  patrons  to  passengers  and  station  employes. 

The  attempt  to  stimulate  production  by  the  estab- 
lishment of  minimum  prices  to  the  producers  has 
been  referred  to.  These  prices  have  had  to  be 
increased  from  time  to  time.  For  example,  by 
decree  of  January,  191 7,  the  minimum  prices  of 
cereals  to  be  observed  in  all  requisitioning  of  the 
19 1 7  crop  by  the  government  for  the  army  of  civil 
population,  and  in  all  civil  contracts,  were  as  fol- 
lows: Wheat,  soft  or  semi-hard,  45  lire  per  net 
quintal;  wheat,  hard,  50  lire;  corn,  33  lire;  oats, 
33  lire;  barley,  40  lire;  rye,  40  lire;  and  rice,  37 
lire.  In  July,  191 7,  the  prices  for  the  19 18  crop 
were  established  as  follows:  Wheat,  soft  or  semi- 
hard, 52  lire  per  net  quintal  (220V2  lbs.)  (equiva- 
lent to  about  $1.87  a  bushel) ;  wheat,  hard,  60  lire 
(about  $2.18  a  bushel)  ;  corn,  38  lire,  (about  $1.31 
a  bushel)  ;  oats,  38  lire  (about  74  cents  *  a  bushel)  ; 
barley,  43  lire  (about  $1.25  a  bushel)  ;  rye,  43  lire 
(about  $1.48  a  bushel).     These  prices  are  increased 

xThis  difference  in  dollar  price  per  bushel  of  oats  from 
that  of  corn  which  has  the  same  price  in  lire  per  quintal  as 
that  of  oats  is  explained  by  the  fact  that  while  the  quintal  is 
a  weight  measure,  being  equivalent  to  220.46  lbs.,  the  weight  of 
a  bushel  varies  with  the  different  grains.  A  quintal  of  oats 
makes  about  6%  bushels,  while  a  quintal  of  corn  makes  but 
3%  bushels.  In  these  computations  a  dollar  is  taken  as  7.45 
lire,  the  exchange  rate  at  the  time  of  this  computation  (August, 
1917). 


THE    FOOD    PROBLEM  45 

by  from  20  to  30  centesimi  a  month  for  deliveries 
made  after  August  1,  19 18.  Minimum  prices  have 
also  been  fixed  for  grain-straw  and  horse  beans. 

Where  the  farmer  produces  crops  either  in  excess 
of  normal  production  or  under  unusually  difficult 
conditions  the  prices  fixed  by  the  government  may 
be  ten  per  cent  in  excess  of  the  regular  official  rate. 
The  government  may  determine  the  amount  of  in- 
creased acreage  which  any  farmer  or  association 
should  cultivate.  It  may  also  require  the  land- 
owner to  allow  an  increased  area  to  tenants. 
Finally,  a  government  decree  of  June,  191 7,  strongly 
encourages  users  of  agricultural  machinery.  So- 
cieties, companies  and  agricultural  associations  are 
granted  concessions  up  to  30  per  cent  of  the  amount 
expended  for  the  purchase  of  tractors  and  me- 
chanical ploughs,  and  in  the  case  of  machines 
worked  in  groups  of  five  or  more,  40  per  cent  of 
the  cost  is  allowed  as  subsidy.  This  measure  has 
given  great  satisfaction  to  the  Italian  farmers  and 
is  having  an  important  influence  in  the  increase  of 
cereal  production. 

FRANCE 

The  chief  responsibility  for  carrying  out  the  meas- 
ures adopted  by  France  for  stimulating  its  food 
production  and  controlling  its  food  consumption 
lay,  from  September,  19 14,  to  January,  19 17,  with 


46  THE    FOOD    PROBLEM 

the  Ministry  of  Commerce,  Industry,  Posts  and 
Telegraphs;  then  from  January,  19 17,  to  March 
20,  19 1 7,  with  the  Ministry  of  Public  Works,  of 
Transports  and  Provisioning,  and  has  been  since 
March  20  with  a  specially  created  Ministry  of  Pro- 
visioning and  Maritime  Transports.  M.  Violette 
has  been  the  Minister  in  charge  since  the  creation 
of  this  special  Ministry,  until  the  time  of  this 
writing  (September)  when,  in  the  formation  of  the 
new  cabinet  under  M.  Painleve,  he  has  been  suc- 
ceeded by  M.  Maurice  Long. 

The  swift  falling  off  in  the  food  production  in 
France,  beginning  with  the  crops  of  191 5  and  pro- 
gressing ever  more  seriously  in  1916  and  1917  — 
the  wheat  acreage  of  19 17  is  but  two-thirds  that 
of  the  pre-war  acreage  —  has  claimed  a  constant 
attention  and  led  to  a  long  and  important  series 
of  actions  taken  to  check  it.  Measures  for  the 
stimulation  of  production  figure  conspicuously  in 
the  long  list  of  regulations.  And  yet  despite  them 
France  suffers  more  than  either  of  her  Allies  from 
the  falling  off  of  native  production.  The  explana- 
tion is  ready  to  hand :  She  has  contributed  more 
of  her  man-power  to  the  fatal  trench  lines,  and  sent 
this  man-power  sooner;  also,  an  appreciable  frac- 
tion of  her  cultivated  lands  are  in  the  hands  of  the 
invaders. 

The  many  measures  undertaken  to  stimulate  pro- 


THE   FOOD   PROBLEM  47 

duction  refer  to  labour,  to  methods  of  cultivation, 
including  use  of  machinery,  and  finally  to  the  utiliza- 
tion of  waste  lands.  Numerous  special  agricultural 
commissions,  from  national  to  cantonal  and  com- 
munal ones,  have  been  formed ;  the  government  has 
given  financial  assistance  for  the  purchase  of  trac- 
tors and  other  needed  farm  machines ;  has  arranged 
for  special  furloughs  at  seeding  and  harvesting 
times  of  agricultural  labourers  in  the  army,  and 
even  the  entire  removal  from  the  army  of  the  agri- 
cultural workers  among  the  earlier  classes  (older 
men)  ;  and  has  established  fixed  minimum  prices 
to  be  paid  the  producers  of  cereals  and  other  crops 
for  government  requisition. 

These  cereal,  prices  have  been  changed,  always 
increasing,  several  times.  The  last  fixation  of  these 
prices  was  in  July  of  this  year  and  is  as  follows: 
Wheat,  50  francs  per  ioo  kilograms  (about  $2.64 
a  bushel)  ;  barley,  42  frcs.  per  100  kilos  ($1.76  a 
bu.)  ;  corn,  42  frcs.  per  100  kilos  ($2.06  a  bushel)  ; 
rye,  42  frcs.  per  100  kilos  ($2.06  a  bu.) ;  oats,  42 
frcs.  per  100  kilos  ($1.14  a  bushel).  This  is  a 
very  large  increase  over  the  prices  existing  before 
this  time,  which  were  36  francs  per  100  kilos  for 
wheat,  34  francs  for  oats  and  barley  and  33  for 
rye;  there  was  no  minimum  price  for  corn.  These 
earlier  prices  were  for  the  1917  crop  and  dated  no 
farther  back  than  April  of  this  year.     The  meaning 


48  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

of  this  great  jump  is  plain;  it  is  that  the  previous 
prices  were  not  sufficient  to  induce  the  farmers  to 
devote  their  attention  to  the  cereals  and  thus  increase 
the  native  crop  of  bread  and  feed  grains. 

The  measures  undertaken  to  control  the  com- 
mercial operations  in  foodstuffs  begin,  seriously, 
with  a  law  passed  in  October,  19 15,  giving  the 
government  the  right  to  requisition  wheat  and  flour 
for  the  civil  population  at  a  fixed  price  —  the  right 
of  requisition  for  the  army  is  of  long  standing  — 
and  to  buy  these  commodities  abroad,  and  distribute 
the  government  supplies  thus  obtained  according 
to  the  needs  of  the  population.  In  April,  19 16,  a 
similar  law  was  passed  for  the  other  cereals,  rye, 
oats,  barley,  and  bran.  A  series  of  ministerial  de- 
crees based  on  these  laws  set  out  the  methods  and 
details  to  be  followed  in  carrying  out  this  radical 
substitution  of  a  governmental  operation  for  the 
ordinary  commercial  methods  of  supplying  the  peo- 
ple of  France  with  their  bread-stuffs. 

Laws  and  decrees  regulating  milling  and  baking 
followed  rapidly,  and  a  long  series  of  orders  estab- 
lishing and  enforcing  maximum  prices  of  various 
commodities  came  into  being  and  is  still  being  added 
to.  The  most  inclusive  maximum  price  law  is  that 
of  April  20,  1 91 6,  which  authorizes  the  fixing  of 
maximum  prices  during  the  war  and  for  a  period 
of  three  months  after  the  cessation  of  hostilities, 


THE   FOOD    PROBLEM  49 

for  the  following  commodities :  coffee,  oil  and  gaso- 
line, potatoes,  milk,  margarine,  alimentary  fats, 
salad  oils,  dry  vegetables,  commercial  fertilizers, 
sulphate  of  copper  and  sulphur,  as  well  as  bread 
and  meat.  Also  this  law  authorizes  generals  of  the 
army  and  commanders  in  the  region  of  the  North 
to  fix  the  maximum  prices  on  all  food  and  liquor 
destined  to  military  consumption  in  the  districts 
under  their  command,  even  if  these  foodstuffs  are 
not  included  in  the  list  of  commodities  above.  They 
may  also  establish  a  maximum  price  on  all  foods 
and  liquors  destined  for  the  civil  population,  after 
having  consulted  with  the  prefects. 

All  of  the  maximum  price  laws  and  decrees  which 
are  intended  to  suppress  illicit  speculation  and  to 
prevent  inflated  profits  have  been  subject  to  much 
discussion.  Some  of  them  have  even  been  re- 
voked; and  some  of  the  maximum  prices  have 
been  abolished,  as,  for  example,  those  for  potatoes, 
milk,  butter  and  cheese  of  all  kinds.  The  outcome 
of  the  whole  French  debate  is  an  agreement  with 
the  conclusion  reached  in  other  countries,  namely, 
that  maximum  price  measures  can  be  enforced  with 
success  only  in  the  case  of  commodities  the  supply 
of  which  is  under  the  control  of  the  government. 
Where  the  supply  is  not  thus  controlled,  maximum 
price  measures  afford  little  relief.  If  not  considered 
high  enough  by  the  producers,  they  tend  to  force 


50  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

the  commodities  covered  by  them  out  of  the  open 
market. 

The  regulations  that  France  has  established  for 
the  control  of  the  immediate  consumption  of  food- 
stuffs fall  into  various  categories  as  regards  the 
nature  of  the  control  exercised.  But  it  will  be  more 
convenient  and  informing  to  describe  the  more  im- 
portant of  these  regulations  according  to  the  com- 
modities and  the  individuals  affected. 

Wheat  is  now  milled  at  85  per  cent.  It  has  been 
successively  changed  from  74  per  cent  to  jj  per  cent 
to  80  per  cent  and  finally,  May,  19 17,  to  85  per  cent. 
Flour  made  from  other  cereals  must  be  mixed  with 
this  wheat  flour  to  the  amount  of  30  per  cent.  The 
flour  must  be  furnished  by  millers  only  to  certain 
designated  bakers  in  each  Department  and  each 
baker  may  sell  his  bread  only  to  certain  households 
and  individuals  placed  upon  his  lists.  All  bread 
must  be  made  of  the  war  flour,  and  no  pastry  or 
fancy  cakes  may  be  made.  The  bread  is  distributed 
on  a  bread  card  system,  which  permits  each  child 
of  from  one  to  six  years  to  have  300  grams  {16V2 
oz.)  of  bread  a  day;  and  each  person  over  six 
years,  500  grams  (i%o  lbs.)  of  bread  a  day.  Cer- 
tain supplementary  amounts  may  be  furnished  under 
certain  conditions,  as  well  as  small  supplementary 
amounts  of  flour  for  cooking.  Careful  arrange- 
ments are  made  to  see  that  hotels,  restaurants,  etc., 


THE    FOOD    PROBLEM  5 I 

are  given  only  as  much  bread  as  their  patronage 
warrants.  This  bread  must  be  sold  by  the  baker 
for  45  centimes  (just  changed  to  50  centimes)  a 
loaf  of  one  kilogram  (2.2  lbs.)  weight,  which  is  less 
than  he  can  make  it  for.  The  difference  is  paid 
to  the  bakers  by  the  government. 

Various  decrees  regulate  the  consumption  of  meat. 
A  decree  of  October  14,  191 5,  prohibited  the  killing 
of  heifers  of  less  than  two  and  a  half  years  of 
age;  of  lambs  weighing  less  than  twenty-five  kilo- 
grams (55  lbs.);  and  of  pigs  weighing  less  than 
sixty  kilograms  (132  lbs.)  In  April  of  this  year 
the  sale  of  fresh,  frozen,  salted  or  canned  meats 
on  Thursday  and  Friday  of  each  week  was  pro- 
hibited as  from  May  15  to  October  15.  It  was  also 
prohibited  to  sell  meat  or  dishes  containing  meat 
on  these  same  days  in  public  eating-places.  All 
butcher  and  sausage  shops,  and  meat  booths  in 
markets,  must  be  closed  on  the  days  that  the  sale 
of  meat  is  prohibited.  Special  exceptions  are  made 
for  the  sale  of  meat  for  the  sick  and  to  hospitals. 
Slaughter  houses  must  be  closed  each  week  from 
eleven  o'clock  Tuesday  night  until  six  o'clock  Fri- 
day morning,  from  May  15  to  October  15.  A 
later  decree  provides  that  the  serving  of  meat  is 
prohibited  at  all  meals  served  after  six  o'clock 
except  Sundays.  Also,  beginning  April  25,  all 
butcher  shops  and  meat  booths  in  markets  must 


52  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

close  every  day  at  one  o'clock.  This  order  revoked 
the  decree  of  ten  days  previous  creating  two  meat- 
less days  a  week.  On  May  14,  a  new  decree  re- 
voked most  of  the  decree  of  April  24  and  re-estab- 
lished most  of  the  decree  of  April  14.  The  results 
obtained  from  prohibiting  the  consumption  of  meat 
after  six  p.  m.  every  day  except  Sundays  in  public 
eating  places,  and  ordering  all  butcher  shops  to 
close  at  one  o'clock  were  not  satisfactory.  In  con- 
sequence, new  measures  of  regulation  were  set  out. 
These  provide  that  on  two  consecutive  days  each 
week  all  slaughtering,  sale  and  consumption  of  meat 
in  public  establishments,  horse  meat  alone  excepted, 
shall  be  prohibited. 

The  sugar  production  of  France  has  fallen  off 
from  an  acreage  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
hectares  in  19 13  to  seventy-two  thousand  hectares 
in  191 7.  To  restrict  the  consumption  of  sugar, 
sugar  cards  are  used  allowing  the  purchase  of  but 
seven  hundred  and  fifty  grams  of  sugar  a  month 
per  person.  This  means  an  allowance  of  about  one 
ounce  a  day  or  eighteen  pounds  per  year  for  each 
person.  Let  us  recall  again  that  in  America  we 
use  about  eighty  pounds  per  person  a  year.  But 
the  possession  of  a  sugar  card  does  not  necessarily 
mean  that  one  can  buy  sugar.  To  buy  it  one  must 
find  it  to  sell.  A  dealer  who  has  sugar  will  not 
sell  it  to  any  one  who  comes  in.     He  saves  it  for 


THE   FOOD   PROBLEM  53 

his  regular  customers.  During  the  fruit  months  of 
June,  July  and  August  an  additional  allowance  per 
person  of  five  hundred  grams  a  month  was  made 
for  preserving  fruit  and  making  jams  and  mar- 
malade. A  scale  of  maximum  prices  for  the  dif- 
ferent grades  of  sugar  has  been  in  effect  since  July. 
By  a  law  passed  in  April,  the  employment  of  sac- 
charine in  the  preparation  of  certain  sweet  products 
has  been  permitted.  Since  July  there  has  also  been 
a  scale  of  maximum  prices  for  saccharine,  the  price 
varying  with  the  amount  purchased. 

In  order  to  control  the  use  of  animal  feed,  a 
decree  of  July,  191 7,  specifies  the  amount  of  feed 
which  can  be  given  to  various  domestic  animals, 
according  to  their  age  and  size.  In  other  words, 
all  domestic  animals  in  France  are  put  on  rations. 

By  order  of  January  25,  191 7,  all  public  eating 
places  are  subject  to  regulation,  beginning  February 
15,  which  limits  each  person  to  two  dishes,  of  which 
only  one  can  be  meat,  at  each  meal.  Provision  is 
made  for  additional  dishes  of  soup  or  hors  d'ceuvres 
and  cheese  or  dessert.  Each  public  eating  place  is 
required  to  send  daily  to  the  police  a  copy  of  the 
bill  of  fare.  A  later  circular  authorizes  the  substi- 
tution of  snails  or  oysters  in  place  of  hors  d'ceuvres, 
prescribed  in  the  earlier  order,  and  allows  the  meal 
to  include  both  cheese  and  a  dessert  instead  of 
only  one  of  these.     Bread  must  not  be  furnished 


54  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

free  in  the  restaurants,  but  must  be  sold  at  five 
centimes  a  slice. 

ENGLAND 

After  a  visit  to  London  in  May  of  this  year  M. 
Violette,  the  French  Minister  of  provisioning,  told 
the  Paris  correspondent  of  the  London  Times  that 
one  of  the  most  interesting  differences  he  had  noted 
between  the  attempts  at  food  control  in  France  and 
England  was  that  the  restrictions  in  England  are 
largely  of  a  voluntary  character.  When  he  was  in 
London,  he  said,  he  found  that  none  of  the  restric- 
tions interfered  with  his  ordinary  habits.  At  home 
it  was  different.  France  had  already  put  into  force 
a  large  number  of  governmental  measures  which 
directly  controlled  the  food  purchasing  and  consum- 
ing habits  of  the  individual. 

It  is  true  that  France  began  the  issuing  of  gov- 
ernmental decrees  affecting  food  immediately  after 
the  outbreak  of  the  war,  but  earlier  ones  had  chiefly 
to  do  with  the  assembly  of  information  concerning 
the  food  resources  of  the  country,  and  it  was  not 
until  the  latter  part  of  191 5  that  the  long  series  of 
more  important  and  drastic  regulations  now  in  force 
began  to  be  formulated.  England  began  later  with 
her  regulations,  but  in  the  last  few  months  she 
has  established  so  many  and  such  drastic  ones  touch- 
ing the  specific  control  of  food  use  that  it  is  doubtful 


THE   FOOD   PROBLEM  55 

if  M.  Violette  were  to  visit  London  again  now 
that  he  would  find  England  very  different  from 
France  in  respect  to  regulation  of  the  individual 
food  habits. 

The  food  problem  of  England  did  not  become 
acute  until  some  time  after  the  war  began.  Certain 
measures  of  governmental  food  control  were  early 
undertaken,  as  the  two  acts  of  August  10  and  28 
respectively  directed  against  "  unreasonable  with- 
holding" by  dealers  of  any  foodstuffs,  giving  the 
Board  of  Trade  authority  to  seize,  on  payment  of  a 
reasonable  price,  any  such  hoarded  supplies.  But 
no  actions  were  taken  under  these  laws.  The  pro- 
hibition of  importation  of  sugar  from  any  European 
port  was  declared  by  proclamation  of  September  14, 
19 14.  In  the  same  month  followed  the  establish- 
ment of  a  Royal  Sugar  Commission,  and  in  Oc- 
tober sugar  imports  from  any  foreign  country  were 
prohibited  without  special  license  from  this  Com- 
mission. These  were  actions  primarily  designed 
to  check  trading  with  the  enemy,  and  real  food 
conservation  measures  were  not  actively  under- 
taken for  nearly  two  years.  Beginning  with 
October,  19 16,  however,  laws  and  decrees  were 
rapidly  passed  and  issued  until  now  England 
has  a  series  of  food  regulations  hardly  less  long 
and  comprehensive  than  that  of  France.  In  addi- 
tion, her  appeals  to  the  voluntary  co-operation  of 


56  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

her  people  have  been  the  most  detailed  and  made 
with  the  most  elaborate  machinery  of  propaganda 
of  any  of  the  Allies.  Her  first  activities  were  in 
charge  of  the  Board  of  Trade,  but  in  January  of 
the  year  (1917)  a  special  Ministry  of  food  was 
established  with  Lord  Devonport  at  its  head  as 
Food  Controller.  In  July  Lord  Rhondda  succeeded 
Lord  Devonport  in  this  office.  The  Food  Con- 
troller has  great  powers.  In  respect  to  requisition- 
ing and  controlling  prices  his  powers  are  as  large 
as  those  of  the  Admiralty,  Army  Council  or  Min- 
ister of  Munitions.  He  may  make  absolute  orders 
controlling  the  production,  manufacture,  storage, 
transport,  distribution,  purchase  or  sale,  use  and 
consumption  of  any  article  of  food.  He  is  not 
a  food  controller;  he  is  literally  a  food  dicta- 
tor. 

Among  the  various  phases  of  food  legislation  that 
of  the  stimulation  of  production  by  the  establish- 
ment of  guaranteed  minimum  prices  to  the  pro- 
ducers of  grain,  and  minimum  wages  to  agricultural 
labourers,  and  by  direct  governmental  aid  to  the 
farmers  for  acquiring  grazing  lands  to  plough  up 
and  machinery  for  farm  work  has  been  one  given 
special  attention  by  the  English  government  and 
with  notable  success.  In  April,  191 7,  the  most 
elaborate  and  far-reaching  scheme  of  stimulation 
of  production  yet  adopted  by  any  government  was 


THE   FOOD   PROBLEM  57 

undertaken  by  the  passage  of  the  "  Corn  Production 
Bill."  It  provides  for  the  guarantee  to  grain  farm- 
ers of  a  sliding  scale  of  minimum  prices  for  wheat 
extending  over  six  years,  as  follows:  harvest  of 
1917,  60  shillings  per  quarter  ($1.78%  a  bushel) ; 
19 1 8  and  191 9,  55  shillings  per  quarter  ($1.63% 
a  bushel)  ;  1920,  1921  and  1922,  45  shillings  per 
quarter  ($1.33%  a  bushel).  Specified  minimum 
prices  for  oats  were  also  declared.  Also  a  minimum 
wage  of  25  shillings  a  week  was  guaranteed  to  agri- 
cultural labourers  through  this  period. 

England  has  always  had  an  undue  proportion  of 
grazing  land  to  cultivated  land.  While  Germany 
has  nearly  50  per  cent  of  her  total  area  under  actual 
cultivation  and  France  has  45  per  cent,  England 
has  a  little  less  than  25  per  cent.  But  England's 
active  measures,  especially  during  the  last  few 
months,  have  notably  increased  her  grain  and  vege- 
table producing  acreage.  Mr.  Lloyd  George  de- 
clared in  a  speech  to  the  House  of  Commons  on 
August  16  of  this  year  that  whereas  in  December, 
19 1 6,  the  cultivated  area  was  between  two  and  three 
hundred  thousand  acres  less  than  in  December, 
191 5,  it  is  now  one  million  acres  larger  than  last 
year.  This  means  an  addition  of  between  three  and 
four  million  tons  of  grain  and  potatoes  to  England's 
food  supply.  It  is  confidently  expected  that  the 
increase  in  area  cultivated  for  the  19 18  crops  will 


58  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

be  no  less  than  two  million  acres,  and  more  prob- 
ably will  reach  nearly  three  million. 

This  is  being  accomplished  by  the  minimum  prices 
order,  by  the  enforced  allotment,  by  counties,  of 
grazing  and  waste  lands  to  be  broken  up  and  cul- 
tivated, and  by  the  re-allotment  of  badly  farmed 
land,  and  the  restriction  of  acreage  for  "  luxury  " 
crops  and  hops  and  the  devotion  of  the  land  gained 
to  staples;  by  extending  credit  to  farmers,  and  by 
the  practical  compulsion  of  farmers  to  cultivate  the 
land  made  available  to  them.  Henry  Gatley,  a 
farmer  of  Cornwall,  was  summoned  on  July  31  for 
failure  to  cultivate  five  acres  of  potatoes  and  fined 
twenty  pounds! 

It  is  also  being  accomplished  by  the  furloughing 
and  return  of  agricultural  labourers  from  the  army, 
—  in  addition  more  than  100,000  women  are  now 
working  at  farm  labour  in  regions  where  heretofore 
no  women  have  been  so  employed;  on  the  other 
hand,  England,  unlike  Germany,  is  using  but  few 
prisoners  of  war  in  the  fields, —  by  the  aid  of  gov- 
ernmental establishment  of  well-equipped  stations 
for  drying  vegetables  and  pulping  fruit,  and  by  the 
provision  of  seed  wheat,  fertilizers,  horse  feed  and 
farm  machinery  to  the  farmers.  Lloyd  George  an- 
nounced in  his  speech  of  August  16  that  the  gov- 
ernment had  already  acquired  for  loan  to  the  farm- 
ers,  1000  tractors,  by  October  would  have  2500, 


THE   FOOD   PROBLEM  59 

and  by  the  spring  of  19 18,  8000.  These  are,  of 
course,  in  addition  to  any  increase  in  privately 
owned  ones.  The  government  has  also  taken  active 
measures  to  rehabilitate  the  fisheries  industry,  badly 
demoralized  by  the  impressment  of  trawlers  and 
fishermen  in  the  service  of  the  Navy.  By  March, 
1918,  every  English  fisherman  of  military  age  will 
have  been  taken  for  naval  service.  Various  laws 
useful  in  peace  times  for  fish  protection  are  tem- 
porarily revoked. 

England's  governmental  control  of  the  foreign 
purchase  and  importation,  the  home  purchase,  sale 
and  distribution  of  foodstuffs  is  now  most  com- 
prehensive. Maximum  prices  and  sales  regulation 
have  been  fixed  for  the  sale  of  wheat  and  the  other 
food  and  feed  grains  and  their  products,  beans, 
peas  and  pulse,  potatoes,  milk,  cheese,  butter,  lard, 
margarine,  livestock  and  meats,  jams  and  jellies, 
sugar,  chocolate  and  other  sweets. 

All  wheat  is  controlled  by  the  Royal  Wheat  Com- 
mission, and  all  mills  have  been  taken  over  by  the 
government.  Wheat  is  milled  at  81  per  cent  and 
to  the  flour  thus  obtained  flour  made  of  other  cereals 
is  now  added,  in  amount  of  from  30  to  50  per  cent. 
The  making  of  bread  by  bakers  is  rigidly  controlled, 
and  arrangements  have  just  (September)  been  per- 
fected for  the  sale  of  all  bread,  for  cash  over  the 
counter,  at  the  fixed  price  of  9d.  (18  cents)  a  loaf 


60  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

of  four  pounds  —  the  price  had  reached  I2d.  in 
August.  To  do  this  the  government  will  have  to 
make  up  to  the  bakers  their  loss,  for  with  the  pre- 
vailing price  of  flour  and  wages  of  labour,  the  four- 
pound  loaf  cannot  be  made  for  ninepence.  It  is 
estimated  that  the  difference  will  cost  the  govern- 
ment under  present  wheat  prices,  nearly  forty  thou- 
sand pounds  a  year. 

Sugar  is  under  close  control.  An  elaborate  sys- 
tem of  distribution  based  on  personal  sugar  cards 
will  go  into  effect  this  month  (September).  Each 
household  may  buy  sugar  only  on  presentation  of 
a  card;  caterers  will  have  their  supplies  regulated 
according  to  the  number  of  meals  served,  and  in- 
stitutions according  to  the  number  of  inmates. 
Manufacturers  will  be  supplied  under  strict  regu- 
lation and  all  sellers,  wholesale  and  retail,  will  be 
able  to  obtain  and  sell  supplies  only  under  an  elabo- 
rate system  of  registration  and  vouchers. 

As  early  as  the  end  of  1916  the  government 
began  a  special  control  of  public  eating  places.  On 
December  5  the  famous  limitation  of  courses  or 
so-called  "  Runciman  Order  "  was  made.  This  was 
before  the  establishment  of  the  special  Ministry 
of  Food  and  was  made  by  the  Board  of  Trade, 
of  which  Mr.  Runciman  was  head.  This  regula- 
tion limited  all  luncheons  in  public  eating  rooms 


THE   FOOD    PROBLEM  6l 

(hotels,  restaurants,  clubs,  etc.)  to  two  courses  and 
dinners  to  three.  For  purpose  of  the  order  soups, 
hors  d'ceuvres  not  made  of  fish  and  meats,  poultry 
or  game  counted  as  one  course,  as  also  cheese ;  soup 
if  containing  no  meat  in  solid  form  counted  as  but 
half  a  course,  and  desserts  consisting  exclusively 
of  fresh  or  dried  fruit  counted  as  a  half  course 
only.  With  any  course  of  meat  vegetables  could 
be  served.  Thus  for  luncheon  one  might  have 
vegetable  hors  d'ceuvres,  a  meat  and  vegetable  course 
and  a  pudding  or  tart  with  cheese;  or  a  clear  soup, 
meat  and  vegetable  course  and  fruit  dessert.  For 
dinner  a  second  meat  course  could  be  added.  This 
order  lasted  just  four  months  and  was  then  revoked 
as  a  confessed  failure.  What  it  did  was  actually 
to  increase  the  amount  of  staples  as  regard  meat 
and  bread  consumed,  lessening  the  use  of  the  less 
important  and  more  luxurious  foods  —  which  is 
exactly  what  England  does  not  want  to  do. 
Wealthy  persons  who  would  normally  eat  several 
"frippery  "  courses  at  luncheon  or  dinner  in  none 
of  which,  perhaps,  solid  meat  had  a  place,  ordered 
for  these  two  or  three  courses  the  staples  and  full 
meat  dishes.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  is  estimated 
on  the  basis  of  actual  figures  furnished  by  the  Asso- 
ciation of  Hotels  and  Restaurants  of  London  that 
the  limited  courses  order  increased  the  consumption 


62  THE   FOOD    PROBLEM 

of  staple  meats  by  25  per  cent,  and  also  increased, 
perhaps  in  no  less  degree,  the  consumption  of  other 
staples,  as  bread,  sugar,  butter  and  potatoes. 

On  April  4,  therefore,  a  new  Public  Meals  Order 
(amended  and  amplified  on  May  4)  was  issued 
doing  away  with  the  limitation  on  the  number  of 
courses,  but  specifying  specific  maximum  amounts 
of  meat,  sugar,  bread  and  flour  which  may  be  used 
in  public  eating  places,  as  follows:  for  one  person, 
meat,  breakfast,  two  ounces,  luncheon,  five  ounces, 
dinner,  five,  tea  none:  sugar,  two-sevenths  of  an 
ounce  for  each  of  the  four  meals;  flour  (used  in 
cooking)  one  ounce  each  for  lunch  and  dinner,  none 
for  breakfast  or  tea.  Two  ounces  of  poultry  and 
game  are  to  be  reckoned  as  one  ounce  of  meat. 
The  weight  of  the  meat  is  to  be  that  of  the  uncooked 
meat,  including  bone,  as  it  is  delivered  by  the 
butcher.  Four  ounces  of  bread  are  to  be  reckoned 
as  three  ounces  of  flour.  No  potatoes  or  any  food 
of  which  potatoes  form  part  shall  be  served  or 
eaten  on  any  day  except  Friday.  (This  potato  re- 
striction was  removed  on  July  3.)  The  order  does 
not  apply  to  boarding  houses  of  ten  bed-rooms  or 
less,  nor  to  any  public  eating  place  where  no  meal 
is  served  the  total  charge  for  which,  excluding 
beverages,  exceeds  one  shilling  and  threepence. 
No  allowance  of  food  is  made  for  any  meal  before 
5  a.  m.  or  after  9 :30  p.  m. 


THE   FOOD   PROBLEM  63 

The  order  therefore  cuts  out  theatre  suppers  and 
encourages  the  vending  of  cheap  meals.  As  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  most  of  the  restaurant  companies,  like 
Lyons,  A.  B.  C,  and  similar  ones,  serving  good 
cheap  meals,  immediately  put  on  the  one  shilling 
threepence  limit.  The  Association  of  Hotels  and 
Restaurants  estimates  that  the  order  will  result  in 
a  saving  of  meat  over  the  amount  consumed  before 
the  limited  courses  order  went  into  effect  of  forty- 
nine  per  cent  and  over  the  amount  consumed  during 
the  period  the  limited  courses  order  was  in  effect 
of  sixty-one  per  cent.  The  saving  of  bread  is  esti- 
mated to  be  fifty-three  per  cent  and  sugar  sixty- 
three  per  cent.  Although  it  is  too  soon  at  this 
writing  to  make  a  statement  as  to  the  success  of 
this  last  order  we  can,  however,  give  the  testimony 
of  the  managing  director  of  the  largest  and  best 
known  hotel  in  London.  He  states  that  whereas 
before  the  order  went  into  effect  he  made  a  weekly 
purchase  of  13,500  pounds  of  meat  from  the  Smith- 
field  Market,  he  now  purchases  a  little  less  than 
half  of  that  amount  although  the  number  of  guests 
in  his  restaurants  has  not  been  decreased.  The 
average  consumption  of  meat  in  different  classes  of 
hotels  and  restaurants  in  December  last  amounted 
to  11.79  ounces  per  head  for  luncheon  and  for  din- 
ner. The  consumption  ranged  from  10.5  up  to 
13.72  ounces  and  included  all  classes  of  restaurants. 


64  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

Thus,  it  is  obvious  that  the  five-ounce  limitation 
means  a  full  and  immediate  saving  of  meat  used 
in  public  eating  places  of  at  least  fifty  per  cent. 
The  average  consumption  of  bread  was  4%  ounces 
a  meal,  which  has  been  reduced  by  the  order  to  2 
ounces  to  the  meal.  Much  of  the  bread  formerly 
served  was  wasted.  In  the  great  hotel  referred  to 
there  was  about  five  sacks  daily  of  130  lbs.  each  of 
waste  bread;  there  is  now  less  than  half  a  sack. 

In  order  to  conserve  the  food  grains,  orders  have 
been  issued  at  various  times  (January  II,  April  20, 
May  2,  August  14  and  15,  191 7),  restricting  the 
use  of  these  grains  for  seed  and  human  or  animal 
food.  These  orders  of  course  incidentally  affect 
the  making  of  malt  and  distilled  liquors.  But  this 
matter  of  reducing  the  consumption  of  alcoholic 
liquors  is  directly  handled  by  several  special  orders, 
one  of  March  29  of  this  year  being  the  most  com- 
prehensive. This  order  cut  down  the  annual  out- 
put of  beer  in  the  United  Kingdom  from  the  twenty- 
six  million  barrels  allowed  for  the  year  ending 
March  31,  191 6,  to  ten  million  barrels.  The 
twenty-six  millions  of  191 5-16  were  in  their  turn 
about  ten  million  less  than  the  pre-war  annual  aver- 
age barrelage,  so  that  the  allowance  of  ten  million 
barrels  is  but  27%  per  cent  of  the  pre-war  annual 
average.  Another  order  prohibited  any  malting  of 
grain  after  February  of  this  year.     It  is  estimated 


THE   FOOD   PROBLEM  65 

that  the  malt  on  hand  would  enable  the  brewers 
to  make  their  permitted  amounts  of  beer  up  to 
November  of  this  year. 

The  March  order  also  provided  for  a  marked 
reduction  in  the  deliveries  of  wine  and  spirits. 
Permission  to  receive  such  liquors  is  reserved  ex- 
clusively to  persons  to  whom  wine  or  spirits  were 
delivered  in  191 6,  and  the  total  amount  per- 
mitted to  be  thus  delivered  may  not  be  more  than 
50  per  cent  of  the  1916  deliveries.  Several  orders 
variously  limit  the  time  when  alcoholic  liquors  may 
be  sold  at  retail;  all  treating  is  forbidden  and  a 
general  attempt  is  made  to  reduce  the  opportunity 
and  invitation  to  drink. 

An  interesting  recent  feature  of  the  English  con- 
trol of  food  distribution  is  the  creation  by  decree 
of  August  17  of  local  food  control  committees  over 
England,  Wales  and  Scotland.  Each  committee 
will  be  composed  of  not  more  than  twelve  members 
of  whom  at  least  one  must  be  a  woman  and  one  a 
representative  of  labour.  Their  expenses  will  be 
borne  by  the  government.  The  first  duty  of  these 
committees  will  be  to  administer  the  distribution  of 
sugar  and  further  the  campaign  of  voluntary  food 
economy.  Later  they  will  be  empowered  to  deal 
with  other  foodstuffs,  including  meat  and  bread. 
They  will  be  given  certain  responsibilities  in  regard 
to  the  enforcement  of  the  food  prices,  determined 


66  THE   FOOD    PROBLEM 

by  the  Food  Controller,  and  will  be  asked  to  advise 
on  the  necessary  local  modifications  of  them.  Up 
to  the  end  of  August  more  than  fifteen  hundred  of 
these  committees  had  been  formed. 

Finally,  we  must  devote  a  few  words  to  the  great 
English  campaign  for  voluntary  food  control.  This 
campaign  has  been  carried  into  every  city  and  town 
and  hamlet  in  the  islands,  and  it  has  had  real  re- 
sults. The  Food  Controller,  through  a  special 
"  director-general  of  food  economy  "  has  asked  the 
people  to  restrict  themselves  in  their  homes  to  the 
same  allowance  of  bread,  meat  and  sugar  permitted 
to  diners  in  public  eating  places.  This  means  four 
pounds  of  flour,  two  and  a  half  of  meat  and  one- 
half  pound  of  sugar  a  week  for  each  person  in  the 
household.  All  houses  agreeing  to  do  this  receive 
a  small  placard  bearing  in  conspicuous  letters  of 
black  and  red  these  words : 

IN    HONOUR    BOUND 

WE  ADOPT 

THE   NATIONAL   SCALE 

OF  VOLUNTARY  RATIONS 

This  placard  is  put  face  outward  into  a  front  win- 
dow of  the  house.  In  the  short  street  in  which  I 
lived  in  London  last  spring  three  out  of  four  houses 
showed  the  placard.  In  a  certain  village  of  250 
houses  all  but  25  displayed  the  card. 

Altogether  as  a  result  of  this  appeal  and  an  in- 


THE   FOOD   PROBLEM  6? 

dependent  "  Eat  Less  Bread  "  campaign  the  Food 
Controller  is  able  to  declare  that  fifteen  per  cent 
less  bread  was  eaten  in  the  United  Kingdom  in 
June  of  this  year  than  in  February.  In  some  of 
the  larger  cities  the  consumption  of  bread  was  re- 
duced by  as  much  as  25  per  cent  to  30  per  cent. 
Portsmouth  reduced  its  weekly  per  capita  consump- 
tion to  3  lbs.  1  oz.  and  Keighley,  the  "  model  town," 
to  2  lb.  .07  oz.  "  It  is  perfectly  safe  to  say,"  writes 
Director  General  Kennedy  Jones,  "  that  an  enor- 
mous reduction  has  been  effected  through  the  vol- 
untary efforts  of  the  people  in  the  United  Kingdom 
in  the  consumption  of  practically  all  food-stuffs." 

CONCLUSION 

This  fleeting  examination  of  what  the  Western 
Allies  are  doing  to  stimulate  food  production, 
eliminate  wasteful  commercial  practices  and  "  profit- 
eering," and  control  consumption,  gives  only  a  par- 
tial survey  of  the  actual  work  being  done.  And 
no  attempt  has  been  made  to  discuss  with  any  critical 
consideration  the  value  of  the  methods  employed 
and  to  extract  the  lessons  to  be  learned  by  us  from 
the  experiences  of  our  friends  overseas.  And  yet 
in  addition  to  the  answering  of  the  repeated  ques- 
tions of  many:  Are  our  Allies  conserving  food, 
and  if  so,  how  and  to  what  extent  are  they  doing 
it?  any  account  of  the  attempts  of  England,  France 


68  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

and  Italy  at  food  control  should  be  rich  in  sugges- 
tions to  us  of  America  as  to  what  to  do  and  what 
not  to  do  in  our  own  endeavours,  only  fairly  be- 
gun as  yet,  to  solve  our  food  problem. 

Take,  for  example,  the  question  of  the  effect 
and  the  advantage  of  establishing  maximum  prices. 
Germany,  Italy,  France  and  England  have  all  leaped 
at  this  presumably  simple  solution  of  the  problem  of 
profiteering  and  distress  of  the  consumer.  But 
it  is  now  obvious  that  this  is  no  simple  solution; 
it  is  doubtful  indeed,  if  under  any  but  the  circum- 
stances of  an  absolute  governmental  control  of  the 
bulk  of  the  commodity  priced  it  is  any  solution  at 
all.  For  its  application  immediately  creates  new 
problems ;  most  conspicuously,  the  problem  of  keep- 
ing the  commodity  in  the  market.  Fix  a  price  for 
food  at  a  price  lower  than  the  producer  believes  he 
should  receive  and  the  commodity  vanishes  from 
sight  and  access. 

Also,  we  must  recognize  that  with  all  the  best 
will  and  best  work  in  the  world,  all  endeavour  to 
keep  prices  down  in  war  time  is  met  by  an  irresistible 
force  which  tends  to  push  them  up.  The  prices  of 
foodstuffs  in  the  warring  countries  have  steadily 
mounted  until  now,  taking  all  the  commodities  to- 
gether and  striking  a  rough  average,  food  can 
fairly  be  said  to  cost  in  England,  France  and  Italy 
fully  twice,  and  in  Germany  three  times,  what  it 


THE   FOOD    PROBLEM  69 

did  at  the  time  of  the  outbreak  of  the  war. 
Bread  in  France  must  be  excepted,  but  its  con- 
tinual low  price  is  artificial;  the  government 
pays  to  keep  it  down,  which  means  that  the 
French  people  of  now  and  to  come  are  to  pay  for 
it  by  indirection.  In  England  the  bread  price  in 
19 14  was  five  and  a  half  pence  the  four-pound  loaf ; 
this  year  it  is  twelvepence.  But  the  government 
has  now  fixed  it  at  ninepence  and  will  pay  the  dif- 
ference. War  necessarily  means  high  prices,  but 
food  control  ought  to  mean  that  these  prices  are 
not  unnecessarily  high. 

Again,  limitation  of  courses  seems  an  easy  means 
to  reduce  consumption  in  public  eating  places.  It 
is,  of  foodstuffs,  of  which  we  are  not  interested  in 
restricting  the  use.  But  England  found  it  actually 
to  increase  the  consumption  of  those  very  all- 
important  necessities  which  she  wishes  to  con- 
serve. 

And  so  one  might  —  and  ought  —  to  work  over 
the  whole  mass  of  the  Allies'  experiments  and  ex- 
periences now  available  to  us.  We  of  the  Food 
Administration  are  trying  to  do  that.  But  we  of 
this  little  book  cannot  undertake  it.  The  principal 
fact  that  we  may  draw  from  the  contents  of  this 
chapter  is  that  our  Allies  who  are  asking  us  for  im- 
peratively needed  help  with  their  food  supply, — 
which  means,  if  we  shall  meet  their  call,  some  con- 


JO  THE   FOOD    PROBLEM 

trol  and  conservation  of  our  own  supply  —  are  not 
asking  this  without  making  on  their  own  part  a 
most  earnest  and  adventurous  attempt  to  help  them- 
selves. 


CHAPTER  IV 

FOOD   CONTROL   IN    GERMANY,   AND   ITS   LESSONS 

When  a  people  is  placed  under  limitation  in  the 
supply  of  foodstuffs,  the  correct  basis  for  the  solu- 
tion of  the  difficulty  lies  in  an  analysis  of  the  dietary 
habits  of  the  people  and  of  the  processes  of  produc- 
tion and  distribution  related  thereto.  When  one 
follows  a  particular  commodity  one  learns,  after 
having  determined  the  amount  produced,  that  the 
outgo  follows  four  directions :  —  in  food ;  in  feed 
for  domesticated  animals ;  in  industry ;  and  in  waste. 
In  the  conservation  of  foodstuffs  in  a  period  of 
stress,  efforts  for  amelioration  are  naturally  divided 
under  the  headings  of  production,  distribution,  and 
consumption.  It  is  not  possible  within  a  brief  space 
to  describe  in  detail  the  methods  practised  by  the 
German  authorities  in  dealing  with  the  conserva- 
tion of  the  food  supply  under  blockade  by  the  Allies. 
It  is,  however,  possible  to  present  a  sketch  in  broad 
outlines,  in  order  that  the  points  of  difference  from 
the  control  attempted  by  England,  France  and 
Italy,  and  the  control  now  in  course  of  being  be- 
gun in  our  own  country,  may  be  brought  out. 

71 


72  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

Germany  was  an  importer  of  foodstuffs.  She 
was  an  importer  of  bread  grains,  feeding-stuffs  that 
were  indirectly  the  basis  for  domestic  food  produc- 
tion, and  colonial  wares,  such  as  coffee.  She  was 
an  exporter,  in  a  large  sense,  of  sugar  only.  Placed 
under  blockade,  the  needed  imports  were  curtailed 
and  the  exportation  of  sugar  abolished,  though  not 
until  the  second  year  of  the  war.  Viewed  as  a  unit, 
Germany  was  accustomed  to  import  from  15  to  20 
per  cent  of  her  foodstuffs.  Austria-Hungary,  as  a 
unit,  was  an  exporter  of  grains,  sugar,  and  to  a  cer- 
tain extent  of  animal  products.  In  the  case  of  Aus- 
tria-Hungary the  exports  more  than  balanced  the 
imports  in  nutritional  values,  and  with  the  mainte- 
nance of  normal  efficiency  the  Central  Empires 
should  have  been  self-sustaining.  They  did  not, 
however,  operate  in  unity.  Each  passed  laws 
against  the  other  and  in  particular  Austria-Hungary 
was  very  loath  to  allow  foodstuffs  to  pass  into 
Germany. 

Shut  off  from  importation  of  bread  grains,  in 
consideration  of  the  area  of  Germany  and  the  high 
productivity  per  acre  under  intensive  methods  of 
agriculture,  it  would  seem  that  it  might  have  been 
possible  for  Germany  to  have  stimulated  the  pro- 
duction of  grain  to  the  point  of  normal  consump- 
tion. The  average  yield  in  a  series  of  years  before 
the  war  was  26,000,000  tons ;  the  average  consump- 


THE   FOOD   PROBLEM  73 

tion,  32,000,000  tons;  the  deficit,  therefore,  6,000,- 
000  tons.  The  agricultural  authorities  of  Germany 
confidently  expected  to  produce  the  sum  represented 
as  deficit  through  increased  agricultural  stimulation. 
The  methods  adopted  were  fixation  of  price  to  the 
producer,  governmental  control  of  seed  and  fer- 
tilizer supplies,  governmental  contributions  in  farm 
labour  at  the  time  of  seeding  and  of  harvest.  The 
prices  fixed  were  regarded  as  high,  for  example, 
the  price  of  wheat  for  the  current  year  being  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  $2.30  a  bushel.  Governmental 
control  of  fertilizer  did  not  mean  much  to  the  peas- 
ant, since  the  government  had  very  short  stocks  of 
phosphate  and  nitrate,  although  amply  supplied  with 
potash.  The  peasants  were  supplied  with  prisoner- 
of-war  labour,  and  reserves  were  withdrawn  from 
the  army  and  sent  to  the  grain  fields.  During  the 
present  summer  the  inactivity  on  the  eastern  front 
has  enabled  the  German  authorities  to  divert  several 
million  men  to  agricultural  labour  in  Poland,  Cour- 
land  and  Roumania. 

But  the  sum  total  of  these  results  has  never 
reached  the  expectations  of  the  authorities.  The 
grain  crops  of  '15,  '16,  and  '17  did  not  equal  the 
average  of  pre-war  years.  This  is  merely  an  ex- 
pression of  the  fact  that  war  reduces  production. 
Despite  efforts  for  the  supply  of  fertilizer  and  labour 
and  despite  stimulation  of  prices,  the  withdrawal 


74  THE   FOOD    PROBLEM 

of  men  from  the  rural  population  so  lowered  effi- 
ciency in  agricultural  operations  as  to  make  normal 
crop  yields  impossible,  irrespective  of  climatic  con- 
ditions. Women,  children  and  old  men,  plus  pris- 
oners-of-war  and  soldiers  for  brief  periods  of  time, 
deprived  in  large  part  of  the  work  animals  of  the 
farm,  do  not  constitute  the  equipment  with  which 
successful  agricultural  production  is  maintained. 

Viewed  from  the  statistical  point  of  view,  the 
range  between  successful  and  unsuccessful  produc- 
tion in  agriculture  was  not  wide.  Had  Germany 
possessed  large  areas  of  unused  land  that  could 
have  been  thrown  open  and  operated  by  crop-tractor 
farming,  an  increased  production  of  grain  might 
have  been  accomplished ;  but  Germany  had  a  limited 
acreage  in  which  grain  could  be  sowed.  From  these 
limited  acres  she  had  secured  large  yields  in  peace 
time  through  intensive  methods  of  agriculture. 
Under  the  stress  of  war  time,  the  intensive  methods 
could  not  be  maintained,  and  the  yields  fell. 

The  highly  specialized  nation  suffers  in  warfare 
more  than  the  lowly  specialized  nation.  A  com- 
parison between  Germany  and  the  United  States  is 
illuminating  from  this  point  of  view.  Artificial 
fertilizer  was  applied  to  every  acre  of  grain  field  in 
Germany ;  in  this  country  it  is  used  to  a  very  small 
percentage  of  the  acreage.  The  lack  of  fertilizer  in 
war  time  will  not  be  felt  here  to  anything  like  the  ex- 


THE   FOOD   PROBLEM  75 

tent  it  is  felt  in  Germany.  That  which  is  true  for 
grain  is  also  true  for  other  crops.  Germany  at- 
tempted to  increase  the  yield  of  potatoes  and  to  re- 
duce the  yield  of  sugar  beets.  Less  sugar  beets 
were  required  because  the  exportation  of  sugar  was 
abolished.  The  acreage  was  cut  down  also  on  ac- 
count of  the  large  amount  of  labour  required  in  cul- 
tivation. The  acreage  was  therefore  reduced  one- 
fourth;  but  from  this  reduced  acreage  a  normal 
crop  has  not  been  secured,  and  the  result  has  been 
that  Germany,  a  sugar-exporting  country  in  time 
of  peace,  has  in  time  of  war  been  compelled  to  re- 
duce the  sugar  ration  of  her  people  to  practically 
one-half  that  of  peace  time.  Potatoes  return  under 
highly  specialized  conditions  of  cultivation  probably 
more  in  yield  than  any  other  human  foodstuffs. 
Success  in  the  raising  of  potatoes  depends  upon 
heavy  fertilization,  careful  selection  of  seed  and 
destruction  of  parasites,  accompanied  by  favour- 
able climatic  conditions.  The  value  of  a  crop  of 
potatoes  is  also  influenced  by  care  in  harvesting  and 
housing.  Germany  had  a  record  crop  in  19 15;  the 
crop  of  1916  was  very  low;  the  crop  of  1917  is 
below  normal. 

Once  the  grain  was  harvested,  Germany  attempted 
to  minimize  its  feeding  to  domesticated  animals  and 
its  use  in  industry,  in  order  that  the  grain  might  go 
to  human  utilization.     The  feeding  of  wheat  and 


y6  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

rye  to  animals  was  strictly  forbidden,  but  the  edict 
could  never  be  enforced.  The  use  of  barley  in  the 
manufacture  of  beer  was  limited,  and  the  domesti- 
cated animals  of  Germany  were  rationed  in  barley 
and  oats.  The  Germans  established  for  their 
workhorses  a  scientific  ration  based  upon  minimum 
utilization  of  protein  and  maximum  utilization  of 
carbohydrate,  and  this  led  to  the  use  of  potatoes  in 
the  horse  ration.  The  inability  of  the  authorities 
to  control  the  use  of  wheat  and  rye  by  the  peasants 
was  a  source  of  bitter  disappointment.  It  was  well 
recognized  that  everywhere  in  the  world  the  peasant 
has  used  his  produce  in  accordance  with  his  individ- 
ual interests ;  but  it  was  felt  that  in  Germany,  with 
military  discipline  and  Teutonic  patriotism,  this 
would  not  be  the  case.  It  was  therefore  a  sad 
revelation  to  the  authorities,  and  above  all  to  the 
social  democrats,  to  find  that  the  German  peasant 
conducted  himself  as  every  peasant  in  the  world  has 
always  done,  from  the  standpoint  of  self-interest  in 
the  use  of  the  produce  of  his  soil  and  hands. 

Germany's  most  severe  blow  under  the  blockade 
was  the  shutting  out  of  imported  concentrated  feed- 
ing-stuffs. Germany  used  to  import  in  the  pre-war 
period  over  five  million  metric  tons  of  concentrates, 
including  in  this  term  oil  cake  and  meal,  nut  meal, 
grains,  grain  offal  and  tankage.  In  other  words, 
Germany   maintained    live-stock   in   excess   of   the 


THE   FOOD   PROBLEM  TJ 

ability  of  the  land  to  produce  feeding-stuffs  for 
these  animals.  She  preferred  to  maintain  live- 
stock, import  the  feeding-stuffs  and  produce  ani- 
mal products  in  her  own  feeding-yards  rather  than 
import  the  finished  meat  products,  as  was  done  in 
large  part  in  England.  When  the  blockade  was 
made  effective  Germany  was  unable  to  maintain 
her  domesticated  animals  on  account  of  the  cutting 
off  of  the  importation  of  feed.  She  thereupon  de- 
creed that  the  number  of  animals  should  be  reduced 
to  the  scale  of  domestic-feeding-stuffs ;  one-third  of 
the  swine,  all  excess  of  adult  cattle,  and  one-eighth 
of  the  milch  cows  were  killed.  It  was  the  plan  of 
the  authorities  to  keep  the  count  of  live-stock  down 
to  the  denominated  figure.  Had  this  been  done,  this 
number  of  cattle  could  have  been  maintained  in  good 
condition  and  with  a  fair  return  in  production  of 
dairy  supplies.  It  involved  of  course  the  killing 
of  young  animals  in  the  case  of  cattle  and  the  limi- 
tation of  breedng  in  the  case  of  swine.  Had  the 
German  peasant  been  convinced  that  the  war  would 
last  into  the  fourth  year,  he  might  have  followed 
this  program;  but  he  was  not  so  convinced  in  the 
spring  of  191 5,  when  the  slaughtering  of  cattle  was 
ordered,  and  instead  of  keeping  down  the  number  of 
animals,  they  were  secretly  preserved,  with  the 
result  that  a  year  and  a  half  later  the  count  was 
practically  back  to  normal.    But  inasmuch  as  the 


78  THE    FOOD    PROBLEM 

corresponding  feeding-stuffs  had  not  been  secured, 
the  physical  condition  of  the  live-stock  was  low. 

During  the  summer  of  19 17,  the  government  has 
killed  off  a  great  deal  of  the  accumulated  stock,  de- 
spite the  poor  physical  condition  of  the  animals,  in 
order  to  supply  an  increased  meat  ration  to  make 
up  for  the  extremely  low  bread  ration.  Today  the 
total  of  live-stock  in  Germany  is  probably  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  two-thirds  of  that  of  the  pre- 
war period;  and  the  physical  condition  is  such  as 
to  reduce  its  value  to  one-half.  Should  the  break- 
down of  Russian  military  operations  lead  to  an 
early  peace,  either  actual  or  nominal,  feeding-stuffs 
of  all  kinds,  especially  sunflower  meal  and  grains, 
will  be  available  in  amounts  that  are  practically 
unlimited,  though  it  will  require  time  for  transpor- 
tation to  be  so  reorganized  as  to  bring  the  supplies 
to  Germany.  The  grain  crops  of  19 17,  includ- 
ing the  yields  in  Courland,  Poland,  and  Roumania, 
are  in  excess  of  those  of  1916,  and  the  next  Ger- 
man stringency  in  food  supplies  will  therefore  not 
occur  until  March,  191 8.  The  roughage  crops  are 
a  failure,  which  means  still  further  decrease  in  milk 
production. 

It  was  extremely  important  to  Germany  to  main- 
tain the  normal  milk  supply.  The  children's  needs 
had  to  be  met  and  large  amounts  were  required  for 
the  army.     Owing  to  the  exclusion  of  foreign  con- 


THE   FOOD    PROBLEM  79 

centrated  feed  and  the  constant  desire  of  the  peasant 
to  maintain  his  stock  of  milch  cows,  the  total  milk 
supply  of  Germany  has  fallen  considerably  below 
the  normal.  It  is  perhaps  a  fair  statement  to  say 
that  Germany  has  not  had  since  the  spring  of  191 5 
over  60  per  cent  of  the  normal  milk  supply.  This 
has  been  utilized  to  the  best  advantage.  It  has  been 
so  carefully  conserved  for  children  that  the  disturb- 
ances in  nutrition  in  children  that  follow  upon  in- 
sufficiency of  milk  in  the  diet  have  not  been  observed. 
It  has  had,  however,  a  serious  result  upon  the  Ger- 
man cuisine.  It  is  impossible  to  prepare  foods  with- 
out milk  or  butter  or  other  fat,  and  have  them  meet 
the  normal  taste  of  the  Germans.  When  the  Ger- 
man housewife  no  longer  had  milk  for  use  in  the 
kitchen  and  was  denied  the  use  of  cooking  fats,  she 
stood  helpless  before  the  task  of  preparation  of  food; 
and  throughout  the  last  two  years  the  German  peo- 
ple have  subsisted  upon  food  that  to  their  tastes  was 
unnatural  and  definitely  unsatisfying.  That  the 
milk  ration  to  the  children  has  been  well  maintained, 
despite  the  result  of  such  conservation  upon  the  diet 
of  the  adults,  is  a  tribute  to  the  discipline  of  the 
German  people. 

Viewing  the  matter  by  and  large,  is  it  clear  that 
during  the  years  191 5,  19 16  and  191 7  the  produc- 
tion of  food  and  feeding-stuffs  in  Germany  was 
not  over  75  or  80  per  cent  of  the  mean  peace-time 


80  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

production.  In  other  words,  the  program  of  the 
German  authorities  for  increased  production  failed ; 
the  normal  production  was  not  even  maintained.  If 
Germany  continues  to  conquer  territory  to  the  east 
and  appropriates  the  foodstuffs  to  herself  rather 
than  leaving  them  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  con- 
quered areas,  she  will  be  able  to  bring  the  produc- 
tion—  viewed  from  the  standpoint  of  what  comes 
into  Germany  for  the  use  of  her  own  people  —  back 
to  a  point  approaching  the  normal  plane.  But  from 
the  standpoint  of  production  from  her  own  acres,  the 
program  of  stimulation  has  been  a  failure,  a  failure 
that  was  inherent  in  the  situation  of  war  and  in  no 
wise  a  reflection  upon  the  efficiency  of  agricultural 
science. 

Once  the  foodstuffs  were  produced,  the  German 
authorities  attempted  to  secure  an  equitable  distribu- 
tion through  the  channels  of  trade,  elimination  of 
extortion,  suppression  of  speculation  and  avoidance 
of  waste.  There  is,  under  normal  conditions,  a  cer- 
tain differential  between  the  sales  price  of  the  pro- 
ducer and  the  purchase  price  of  the  consumer. 
Whenever  conditions  in  trade  become  abnormal, 
this  differential  tends  to  increase;  the  more  ab- 
normal the  greater  the  differential.  The  net  result 
of  this  operation  of  the  laws  of  trade,  plus  the  ac- 
tive self-interest  of  the  trading  classes,   leads  to 


THE   FOOD    PROBLEM  8 I 

the  situation  that  in  times  of  greatest  stringency  the 
producer  secures  the  least  for  his  produce  in  com- 
parison to  its  cost  to  the  consumer. 

The  German  authorities  were  determined  that  the 
differential  between  sales  price  to  the  producer  and 
cost  price  to  the  consumer  should,  if  possible,  be 
maintained  in  war  time  at  the  peace-time  level. 
They  have  been  successful  with  certain  commodi- 
ties, unsuccessful  with  others.  Their  greatest  suc- 
cess was  attained  with  bread.  Despite  the  fact  that 
the  price  of  grain  was  distinctly  higher  than  the 
pre-war  level,  the  cost  of  bread  was  maintained  at 
practically  the  pre-war  figure.  The  formula  by 
which  this  was  accomplished  was  one  that  has  been 
worked  out  in  Belgium  by  the  American  Relief 
Commission  during  the  first  year  of  the  war,  and 
runs  to  the  effect  that  the  price  of  bread  per  pound 
must  not  exceed  the  price  of  flour  per  pound.  Now, 
since  one  pound  of  flour  produces  about  one  and 
one-third  pounds  of  bread,  the  sole  profit  for  the 
baker  lay  in  this  difference.  A  pound  of  grain 
under  ordinary  circumstances  produces  a  little  less 
than  three  quarters  of  a  pound  of  flour,  and  since 
a  pound  of  flour  produces  a  pound  and  a  third  of 
bread  it  was  approximately  true  to  say  that  a  pound 
of  grain  equals  a  pound  of  bread.  Since  the  dif- 
ferential between  grain  and  flour  was  relatively  low 


S>2  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

the  end  result  was  that  the  price  of  bread  per  pound 
to  the  consumer  was  practically  the  same  as  the 
price  of  grain  per  pound  to  the  producer. 

In  order  to  maintain  this  situation,  the  German 
authorities  were  compelled  to  practise  rather  exten- 
sive dilution  of  flour.  This  dilution  was  of  little 
importance  so  long  as  it  was  carried  out  by  the  use 
of  other  grains  for  mixing;  but  it  became  of  nutri- 
tive importance  when  this  was  no  longer  done,  and 
the  stretching  of  the  flour  was  carried  out  with 
potato.  The  mixing  of  potato  with  grain  flour  re- 
sults in  a  distinct  lowering"  in  the  nutritive  qualities 
of  the  bread,  since  it  amounted  to  little  more  than 
the  addition  of  starch.  When  the  German  bread 
contained  as  much  as  30  per  cent  of  potato,  it  repre- 
sented a  reduction  from  the  standpoint  of  protein 
of  practically  one-third.  Nevertheless,  when  all 
is  said  and  done,  the  fact  that  the  German  authori- 
ties have  been  able  to  maintain  the  pre-war  price  of 
bread  represents  an  achievement  of  extreme  impor- 
tance from  the  standpoint  of  psychology  and  eco- 
nomics of  the  diet. 

Whenever  it  became  apparent  to  the  authorities 
that  it  was  not  practicable  with  a  commodity  to  keep 
the  price  to  the  producer  and  the  purchase  price  to 
the  consumer  within  speaking  distance,  so  to  speak, 
it  could  either  allow  the  condition  to  remain  as  an 
irreparable  situation,  or  cover  the  difference  through 


THE   FOOD   PROBLEM  83 

the  appropriation  of  state  funds.  The  latter  plan 
was  adopted  in  the  case  of  the  potato.  The  gov- 
ernment fixed  a  sales  price  for  the  producer  of  po- 
tatoes, determined  a  fair  price  for  the  consumer 
and  itself  appropriated  money  to  cover  the  differ- 
ence. Sugar  beets,  under  the  complete  control  of 
the  government,  have  been  carefully  conserved. 
The  price  of  the  beets  was  fixed.  The  differential  to 
the  refiners  and  the  sales  price  to  the  consumer 
were  fixed,  and  the  difference  between  the  price  paid 
for  beets  and  the  retail  price  of  sugar  is  not  ma- 
terially greater  than  that  obtaining  in  peace  time. 

But,  in  the  case  of  meats,  dairy  products,  fruits 
and  vegetables,  the  attempt  to  keep  a  normal  dis- 
tance between  the  producer's  price  and  the  consum- 
er's price  was  a  failure.  In  general,  apart  from 
sugar  and  wheat,  maximum  prices  to  the  consumer 
have  been  a  failure.  Evasion  was  easy  and  con- 
stantly practised,  the  evasion  taking  the  form  of 
direct  communication,  outside  of  the  state  chan- 
nels of  trade,  between  the  producer  in  the  country 
and  the  consumer  of  means  in  the  city.  The  maxi- 
mum prices  for  the  consumer  applied  only  to  the 
industrial  workers  in  the  large  cities,  in  other  words, 
to  the  Social  Democrats,  and  this  has  resulted  in  a 
sentiment  among  the  working  classes  of  extreme 
embitterment  towards  the  agrarians  and  also  in  a 
different  attitude  towards  the  war. 


84  THE    FOOD    PROBLEM 

Apart  from  the  achievements  in  price  control  and 
distribution,  the  German  results  in  commercial  con- 
trol have  been  negligible.  Extortion  has  not  been 
prevented,  speculation  has  not  been  checked,  and 
distribution  has  not  been  equitable.  In  the  case  of 
bread  and  sugar  success  was  obtained ;  in  the  case  of 
all  other  commodities,  failure  resulted.  When  the 
data  are  carefully  analysed,  it  is  seen  that  the  fac- 
tor determining  success  or  failure  lay  ultimately  in 
the  perishability  of  the  product.  Grain  and  sugar 
lend  themselves  to  regulation.  The  perishability 
of  dairy  products,  meats,  fruits  and  vegetables  lend 
themselves  naturally  to  extortion,  speculation  and 
inequitable  distribution.  But  they  do  not  lend 
themselves  to  hoarding,  whereas  grain  and  sugar 
do  lend  themselves  to  hoarding;  here  the  situation 
was  reversed.  The  people  of  means  could  secure 
more  than  their  share  of  dairy  products,  meats,  fruits 
and  vegetables  through  price  manipulation  and  cir- 
cumvention of  the  regulations  that  were  impossible 
to  the  working  classes.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
classes  of  means  could  secure  more  than  their  legal 
share  of  flour  and  sugar  because  these  could  be 
hoarded,  whereas  hoarding  was  impossible  to  the 
poor  because  of  lack  of  money.  Under  these  cir- 
cumstances, the  natural  trend  of  events  worked  to 
the  advantage  of  the  well-to-do  classes  and  to  the 
disadvantage  of  the  poor.     The  most  intense  class 


THE   FOOD   PROBLEM  85 

feeling  arises  from  inequality  in  alimentation,  since 
it  represents  inequality  in  the  carrying  of  the  bur- 
dens of  the  war.  But  it  is  a  curious  commentary 
upon  the  psychology  of  people  that  inequality  in 
the  direct  ioad  of  military  burdens  is  borne  with 
apparent  equanimity  whereas  inequality  in  the  eco- 
nomic or  nutritional  burdens  of  war  provokes  in- 
tense class  hatred. 

The  machinery  for  the  control  of  distribution  was 
both  destructive  and  constructive  —  destructive  in 
the  sense  that  it  involved  wiping  out  middlemen, 
limitation  in  the  number  of  wholesalers  and  re- 
tailers, and  exclusion  of  all  jobbers  and  commis- 
sion merchants  between  the  producer  and  the  whole- 
saler and  between  the  wholesaler  and  the  retailer. 
As  finally  elaborated,  the  constructive  machinery 
determines  through  what  hands  the  foodstuffs  pro- 
duced in  Germany  pass,  fixes  the  number  of  whole- 
salers and  retailers,  the  prices  that  they  are  allowed 
to  charge,  the  turn-over  they  are  allowed  for  them- 
selves, and  for  the  consumer  fixes  the  retailer  from 
whom  he  is  permitted  to  purchase.  That  this  ma- 
chinery involves  a  huge  staff  is  obvious.  It  is, 
however,  a  striking  commentary  on  the  machinery 
of  commercial  distribution  in  peace  time  to  state 
that  a  careful  census  in  Germany  has  indicated  that 
the  official  machinery  for  the  control  of  distribu- 
tion, plus  the  economic  machine  retained  from  the 


86  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

pre-war  period,  represents  only  about  one-half  the 
number  of  individuals  engaged  in  the  pre-war  period 
in  the  distribution  of  the  same  commodities.  This 
experience  of  Germany  has  confirmed  in  a  conclu- 
sive manner  the  contention  of  social  thinkers  to  the 
effect  that  the  trading  class  is  over-populated,  the 
articles  passing  from  producer  to  the  consumer 
through  a  number  of  unnecessary  hands,  a  number 
not  determined  by  exigencies  in  the  trade,  but  solely 
by  the  profits  to  be  derived  therefrom.  On  the 
other  hand  it  is  apparent  that  the  rigid  reduction  in 
the  trading  class  is  accompanied  by  a  limitation  of 
freedom  to  the  producer  and  to  the  consumer  that 
is  keenly  felt  by  both.  There  is  less  freedom  to  sell 
and  to  buy  in  Germany;  with  this  loss  of  freedom, 
however,  there  is  greater  efficiency  in  the  act  of  sell- 
ing and  buying.  Whether  a  people  in  peace  time 
would  prefer  to  have  a  higher  efficiency  in  selling 
and  buying  with  less  of  individual  freedom  to  buy 
and  sell  as  one  chooses,  is  an  entirely  different  ques- 
tion. 

It  is  also  an  interesting  commentary  on  the  psy- 
chology of  a  people  to  realize  that  despite  patriotism 
and  discipline,  Germans  of  means  never  hesitated 
to  circumvent  the  food  laws  in  order  to  secure  from 
the  producing  class  foodstuffs  whose  sale  was  con- 
trary to  regulations.  Despite  constant  appeal  by 
the  authorities  that  success  in  the  war  depended  in 


THE   FOOD   PROBLEM  87 

part  upon  the  maintenance  of  the  food  regulations, 
producers  were  always  willing  to  break  them,  and 
so  were  the  consumers  with  means.  This  does  not 
mean  lack  of  patriotism.  It  means  that  individuals 
are  not  able  to  visualize  the  situation  and  do  not 
believe  that  their  offences  against  food  regulations 
result  in  a  lowering  of  the  probability  of  success  in 
military  undertakings.  The  needs  of  the  industrial 
relations  of  war  as  distinguished  from  the  military 
operations  lie  outside  of  the  power  of  visualization 
of  the  average  individual.  This  is  true  in  this 
country  now  and  will  continue  to  remain  true  as  the 
war  continues.  Whosoever  in  war  time  demands 
"  business  as  usual "  is  acting  contrary  to  the  forces 
operating  for  success  in  carrying  on  the  war; 
and  yet  the  very  men  who  do  so  contend  for  "  busi- 
ness as  usual "  in  war  time  would  not  in  the  least 
hesitate  to  send  their  own  sons  to  the  front.  They 
do  not  seem  to  realize  that  their  behaviour  in  the 
conduct  of  their  business  increases  the  risk  to  the 
lives  of  their  own  enlisted  sons.  The  cattle  raiser 
who  wishes  to  take  advantage  of  high  speculative 
price  of  livestock,  the  wheat  grower  who  desires  to 
obtain  the  profits  to  be  derived  from  unrestricted 
competitive  buying  by  the  frenzied  nations  at  war, 
the  labourer  who  attempts  to  force  the  highest  wage 
on  the  basis  of  supply  and  demand,  and  the  coal 
operator  who  capitalizes  the  contest  between  in- 


88  THE   FOOD    PROBLEM 

dustrial  and  fireside  demands  for  coal,  all  fail  to 
visualize  the  situation  as  it  actually  exists  and  do 
not  realize  that  their  point  of  view  jeopardizes  the 
successful  carrying  on  of  the  war. 

The  German  consumers,  regarded  as  a  unit,  ex- 
pected four  things  from  the  national  food  adminis- 
tration: i,  a  ration  adequate  to  their  physio- 
logical and  psychological  needs ;  2,  a  price  for  food- 
stuffs that  would  enable  the  wage  to  cover  the  cost 
of  living;  3,  equitable  distribution  throughout  the 
different  classes  of  society;  and  4,  guarantee  of  the 
ration  allotment.  The  failure  to  succeed  fully 
hinged  entirely  upon  the  failure  to  secure  the  third 
stipulation,  that  of  equitable  distribution.  Had  it 
been  possible  to  divide  in  a  strictly  pro  rata  fashion 
the  foodstuffs  available  within  the  German  Empire, 
it  would  have  been  possible  to  supply  to  all  an  ade- 
quate ration  at  a  bearable  price  and  to  have  guaran- 
teed it.  But  these  three  desiderata  were  not  accom- 
plished because  the  producer  class,  the  agrarians 
(who  comprise  about  25,000,000  out  of  the  total 
population)  consumed  more  than  their  pro  rata  of 
foodstuffs,  diverted  a  portion  of  the  foodstuffs  to 
the  feeding  of  domesticated  animals,  and  sold  to  the 
well-to-do  classes  in  disregard  of  the  regulations. 

The  brunt  of  the  situation  was  borne  by  the  in- 
dustrial workers,  a  group  that  probably  includes 
20,000,000  people,  and  comprises  in  the  political 


THE   FOOD    PROBLEM  89 

sense  the  entire  Social  Democratic  adherents,  who 
were  never  able  to  secure  the  ration  to  which  they 
were  entitled.  They  did  secure  the  ration  of  bread 
and  sugar  that  was  legally  allotted  to  them;  but 
the  legal  allowance  of  bread  and  sugar  was  less 
than  should  have  been  allotted  on  the  basis  of  Ger- 
man production  and  itself  represented  a  failure  in 
the  application  of  the  principle  of  equitable  distribu- 
tion. Germany  had  bread  grains  enough  to  have 
guaranteed  a  flour  ration  of  300  grams  per  capita 
per  day.  When  it  came  to  the  allocation  of  bread 
grains  the  situation  was  so  manipulated  as  to  make 
it  appear  that  no  such  amount  could  be  guaranteed. 
The  first  ration  was  fixed  at  225  grams,  later  at 
200,  during  a  portion  of  the  past  year  it  was  as  low 
as  175,  and  is  now  to  be  restored  to  220.  A  cal- 
culation of  the  officially  reported  grain  crops  of  Ger- 
many on  the  basis  of  the  established  regulations  for 
milling  indicates  that  200  grams  of  flour  per  capita 
per  day  did  not  exhaust  the  flour  potentiality  of  the 
German  grain;  it  could  have  furnished  300. 

In  the  matter  of  price  the  Germans  accomplished 
a  repression  of  the  prices  of  bread  and  sugar  to 
those  that  approximated  the  conditions  in  peace 
time.  The  1950-gram  loaf  of  bread  has  sold  at 
from  68"  to  74  pfennigs.  This  is  less  than  5  cents 
a  pound  and  represents  a  marked  contrast  to  the 
price  of  bread  in  the  United  States.     The  price  of 


90  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

sugar  has  been  held  in  the  neighbourhood  of  8 
cents  per  pound,  which  approximates  the  price  in 
this  country.  In  no  other  direction  has  it  been 
possible  to  hold  the  price  down  to  the  point  de- 
manded by  the  wage  scale.  Milk  at  8  cents,  the 
cheapest  butter  at  6o  cents  and  the  lowest-grade 
meats  at  40  cents  do  not  represent  prices  that  lie 
within  the  purchasing  power  of  the  wage  earner  of 
Germany  today,  and  there  is  absolute  truth  in  the 
contention  of  the  Social  Democrats  that  the  wage- 
earning  classes  of  Germany  during  the  past  year 
and  a  half  have  lost  in  capital  as  a  result  of  in- 
ability to  meet  the  cost  of  living  upon  the  scale  of 
wages  provided. 

Since  May,  1916,  it  has  not  been  possible  for  the 
food  administration  of  Germany  to  provide  the 
20,000,000  persons  of  the  industrial  class  with  a 
ration  that  can  be  regarded  as  adequate  for  the 
maintenance  of  health,  body  weight  and  the  support 
of  physical  work.  One  of  the  three  had  to  be  sac- 
rificed and  the  first  to  be  sacrificed  was  body  weight. 
The  industrial  classes  of  Germany,  who  have  re- 
ceived not  to  exceed  2000  calories  per  capita  per  day 
for  non-working  individuals,  have  lost  weight ;  they 
are  trained  down  hard  like  athletes.  There  was 
no  evidence  in  Germany  up  to  March,  191 7,  that 
the  health  of  these  individuals  had  suffered;  there 
was  no  increase  of  infectious  disease  and  no  ab- 


THE   FOOD   PROBLEM  9 I 

normality  in  the  death  rate.  No  evidence  has  been 
adduced  since  that  time  to  indicate  that  the  health 
of  the  working  classes  has  been  undermined  by 
their  restricted  diet.  Indications  are,  however,  ap- 
pearing that  the  output  of  work  is  failing  and  this 
is  the  natural  sequence  of  events  since  weight  is 
first  lost,  then  work  is  reduced,  and  finally  health 
impaired  as  the  diet  is  progressively  lowered.  The 
Germans  have  paid  particular  attention  to  the  ali- 
mentation of  their  children.  They  have  not  been 
sacrificed  to  any  demonstrable  extent;  and  indeed 
the  almost  total  withdrawal  of  milk  from  the  diet 
of  adults  and  in  the  preparation  of  food  in  order 
that  it  might  be  conserved  for  children  represents 
an  illustration  of  the  far-sighted  policy  that  was 
adopted.  That  the  restrictions  in  the  diet  during  the 
past  year  and  a  half  have  fallen  almost  entirely  upon 
the  industrial  workers  of  the  cities  is  fully  realized 
by  the  industrial  classes  and  represents  a  casus  belli 
between  them  and  the  agrarians  that  will  be  the  oc- 
casion of  bitter  political  contests  after  the  war. 
The  harsh  treatment  inflicted  by  the  peasants  during 
the  past  summer  upon  city  children  sent  to  the  coun- 
try for  recuperation  has  only  intensified  this  bitter- 
ness. 

How  long  the  German  industrial  classes  can  hold 
out  on  the  present  diet  cannot  be  stated.  The  writ- 
ers do  not  believe  that  it  could  ever  be  possible  to 


92  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

starve  out  Germany,  even  if  she  were  shut  within 
her  own  borders,  except  in  the  event  of  unusual 
crop  failure.  The  purpose  of  the  food  blockade  is 
not  to  starve  Germany  but  to  compel  her  to  produce 
all  of  her  foodstuffs,  and  thus  have  to  withdraw 
labour,  capital  and  organization  from  industrial  lines 
directly  contributing  to  the  war.  There  is  evidence 
that  the  crops  of  Germany  and  Austria-Hungary, 
including  those  of  Courland,  Poland,  Roumania  and 
Servia,  will  this  year  enable  considerably  larger  ra- 
tions to  be  allotted  to  the  working  people.  To 
what  extent  the  increments,  largely  in  grain,  will  be 
counterbalanced  by  sharper  application  of  the  block- 
ade and  reduction  of  importations  into  Germany 
from  surrounding  countries  remains  to  be  seen. 

The  German  government  failed  to  guarantee  any 
ration  except  the  bread  ration  and  the  milk  ration 
for  children  under  the  sixth  year  of  life.  Other- 
wise, it  was  in  large  part  "  first  come,  first  served  " 
during  the  first  year  and  a  half  of  the  war;  and  since 
that  time  the  authorities  have  made  pro  rata  reduc- 
tions from  the  stated  ration  in  the  event  of  strin- 
gency of  the  supply.  It  was  not  always  possible  to 
allot  a  pound  of  sugar  a  month.  Even  the  bread 
ration  was  at  times  impossible  of  fulfilment,  but 
this  was  countered  through  substitution,  more  po- 
tato being  issued.  The  attempt  was  always  made  to 
secure  in  substitution  an  equal  value  in  terms  of  nu- 


THE   FOOD   PROBLEM  93 

tritional  units,  though  naturally  when  potato  was 
substituted  for  bread,  the  ration  was  lower  in  pro- 
tein. In  connection  with  fat,  it  has  been  particularly 
difficult  to  guarantee  the  ration  and  this  has  led  to 
progressive  reduction  so  that  for  months  at  a  time 
the  fat  ration  issued  in  many  German  cities  has  been 
as  low  as  two  ounces  per  capita  per  week,  and 
rarely  over  three  ounces.  The  allotted  ration  of 
fruit  and  vegetables  represented  little  more  than 
privilege  of  purchase  if  it  could  be  secured. 

Waste  in  foodstuffs  occurs  throughout  the  en- 
tire chain  of  transfers  from  the  original  producer 
to  the  final  consumer.  For  certain  commodities 
the  waste  in  the  hands  of  the  producer  is  high,  in  the 
hands  of  the  consumer  low.  For  other  commodi- 
ties, the  waste  is  low  with  the  producer  and  high 
with  the  consumer.  In  some  of  the  commodities  the 
chief  waste  lies  in  distribution.  Everywhere  in  the 
conservation  of  food  supplies,  the  problem  of  waste 
must  receive  the  most  critical  attention ;  and  extreme 
and  persistent  efforts  are  required  to  eliminate  waste 
through  education  of  the  producer,  the  trade  and 
the  consumer  in  methods  of  conservation. 

Along  these  lines  the  Germans  have  achieved  a 
most  signal  success  during  the  war.  Indeed,  a  care- 
ful survey  made  in  Germany  during  the  summer  of 
1916  indicated  that,  apart  from  certain  untoward 
happenings  —  which  might  really  be  called  accidents 


94  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

in  distribution  —  waste  in  foodstuffs  in  Germany 
had  been  almost  eliminated.  There  is  good  evi- 
dence that  waste  in  the  large  sense  of  the  word  in- 
cluded an  almost  unbelievable  fraction  in  peace 
time.  For  example,  according  to  the  official  Ger- 
man statement  of  their  food  resources,  there  was 
provided  in  Germany  in  the  pre-war  period  food  for 
each  individual  per  day  to  the  amount  of  some  3600 
calories.  It  was  the  judgment  of  German  scien- 
tists that  not  to  exceed  a  per  capita  of  2800  calories 
at  the  outside  was  actually  consumed,  leaving  a 
waste  of  800  calories,  or  practically  2.2  per  cent  of 
the  food  provided. 

A  survey  of  the  food  resources  of  this  country 
indicates  that  a  similar  waste  occurs  in  this  coun- 
try. One  of  the  curious  things  about  this  fraction 
of  waste  is  its  apparent  immutability  with  a  peo- 
ple except  under  conditions  of  such  stress  as  to  call 
forth  systematized  organization  for  conservation. 
If  in  a  particular  country  the  food  resources  pro- 
vide a  per  capita  food  supply  of  3600  calories  and 
the  food  consumption  is  2800  calories,  leaving  a 
waste  of  800  calories,  one  might  imagine  at  first 
sight  that  if  the  food  resources  were  to  fall  to  3500 
calories,  the  consumption  would  be  maintained  at 
2800  and  the  waste  reduced  to  700  calories.  This, 
however,  does  not  occur  at  first;  instead,  if  the 
food  provided  is  reduced  from  3600  to  3500  calor- 


THE   FOOD   PROBLEM  95 

ies,  it  will  be  found  that  the  consumption  will  be 
reduced  from  2800  to  2700  calories,  and  the  waste 
maintained.  In  other  words,  our  habits  of  con- 
sumption are  more  flexible  and  adaptable  than  our 
habits  of  waste;  and  it  is  only  when  systematized 
education  in  the  direction  of  conservation  and  the 
elimination  of  waste  is  carried  on  that  the  people 
as  a  unit  so  act  as  to  have  the  reduction  in  food 
provided  fall  upon  the  waste  rather  than  upon  the 
consumption. 

When  it  is  recalled  that,  in  accordance  with  trade 
figures,  the  food  provided  in  Germany  in  the  pre- 
war period  offered  some  3600  calories  and  that  the 
per  capita  consumption  (on  the  basis  of  the  non- 
working  individual)  in  German  industrial  cities  has 
for  over  a  year  been  in  the  neighbourhood  of  2000, 
one  realizes  clearly  that  the  largest  fraction  of  this 
reduction  has  been  obtained,  not  through  reduction 
of  food  consumption  but  through  reduction  in  waste. 
One  of  the  difficulties  in  the  estimation  of  the 
degree  of  reduction  that  a  people  can  endure  in 
food  supply  lies  in  our  inability  to  separate  the 
factors  of  restriction  in  the  diet  from  elimination 
of  waste.  It  has  been  a  common  statement  of 
students  of  nutrition  that  the  diet  of  a  people  can- 
not be  reduced  25  per  cent  from  the  customary  plane 
without  influence  upon  health.  The  German  ex- 
perience indicates  that  this  is  not  true.    It  is  prob- 


g6  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

ably  true  that  a  diet  cannot  be  reduced  over  25 
per  cent  from  the  figure  of  actual  ingestion;  but 
this  does  not  mean  that  the  food  of  a  people  as 
provided  in  initial  production  cannot  be  reduced 
over  25  per  cent,  because  a  large  portion  of  this  re- 
duction may  fall  upon  waste.  It  is  probable  that 
the  food  consumption  in  the  home  of  the  French 
peasant  represents  the  maximum  of  efficiency,  that 
is,  there  is  the  least  waste;  but  even  in  France,  as 
a  nation,  the  food  supply  at  present  is,  from  the 
standpoint  of  total  units  and  taking  into  considera- 
tion the  increased  physical  labours  of  war,  20  or 
25  per  cent  below  that  of  the  pre-war  period.  It 
is  necessary  that  the  general  public  should  differenti- 
ate clearly  between  repression  of  consumption  and 
repression  of  waste,  though  in  the  tabular  sense  they 
appear  in  the  same  columns.  From  the  practical 
point  of  view,  the  more  successful  the  elimination 
of  waste,  the  less  necessary  the  repression  of  con- 
sumption; and  indeed  excessive  consumption  be- 
yond the  needs  of  the  body  represents  as  definite 
and  indefensible  a  form  of  waste  as  the  actual 
throwing  away  of  food  into  garbage. 

There  is  a  reverse  side  to  the  psychology  of  a 
campaign  against  waste  that  deserves  a  momentary 
consideration.  Every  duty  imposed  upon  civilians 
in  a  period  of  such  unprecedented  stress  as  the  pres- 
ent is  liable  to  provoke  a  reflex  reaction  of  aversion. 


THE   FOOD    PROBLEM  97 

The  pressure  now  being  applied  in  the  European 
household  to  eliminate  waste  is  intense.  The  dis- 
cipline has  become  so  irksome,  its  minutiae  so  ir- 
ritating, that  the  women  of  Germany  —  as  one 
clear-visioned  woman  said  to  the  writer  —  long  for 
the  day  when  wasting  will  be  again  permitted.  In 
particular  is  this  true  of  the  working  classes.  It 
is  the  working  classes  who  know  how  to  conserve 
against  waste  in  times  of  peace.  Of  the  waste  in 
American  homes,  three-fourths  occurs  in  one-fourth 
of  the  homes.  From  the  standpoint  of  nutritional 
values,  in  a  campaign  of  education  against  waste  the 
greatest  success  is  achieved  in  homes  where  there  is 
the  least  waste,  because  here  the  financial  pressure 
is  greatest.  Under  these  circumstances,  care  must 
be  exercised  in  not  forcing  home  a  campaign  against 
waste  with  such  irksomeness  in  minutiae  as  to  bear 
too  heavily  upon  the  poorest  classes  and  provoke  a 
psychological  revolt. 

All  in  all  the  nutrition  of  the  individual  classes  in 
Germany  during  the  last  year  and  a  half  has  been 
a  revelation  to  the  scientific  world,  even  without 
considering  the  question  as  to  the  ultimate  results 
of  such  a  reduction  in  the  diet.  The  industrial 
classes  of  Germany  have  demonstrated  that  millions 
of  hard  working  men  and  women  can  subsist  and 
work  in  apparent  good  health,  though  reduced  in 
weight,  upon  two-thirds  of  the  diet  previously  re- 


98  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

garded  as  a  minimum.  Curiously  enough,  in  the 
controversies  that  have  been  waged  for  years  over 
the  minimum  in  nutrition,  the  German  scientists 
have  usually  stood  out  for  high  values,  and  it  has 
thus  been  their  lot  to  observe  in  their  own  country 
the  contradiction  of  their  theories  through  the  suc- 
cessful demonstration  of  the  adequacy  of  the  low  in- 
takes that  were  long  contended  for  by  physiologists 
outside  of  Germany  and  especially  in  the  United 
States. 

Viewed  as  a  whole,  the  rationing  system  of  Ger- 
many cannot  be  regarded  as  having  been  more  than 
a  partial  success.  Such  success  as  it  has  attained 
has  been  due  to  the  highly  organized  discipline  and 
minute  administrative  control  characteristic  of  the 
German  people  and  their  government.  At  the  same 
time  some  of  the  failures  were  due  to  the  very  same 
qualities,  especially  to  the  administrative  detail. 
There  is  no  question  that  the  rationing  of  the  Ger- 
man people  has  been  less  successfully  accomplished 
than  the  rationing  of  the  Belgian  people  under  the 
Commission  for  Relief  in  Belgium.  The  difference 
may  be  attributed  largely  to  the  superiority  of  a 
system  of  decentralization,  aiming  at  80  per  cent 
efficiency,  operating  through  the  principle  of  cen- 
tralized control,  aiming  at  95  per  cent  efficiency. 
Maximum  prices  for  the  consumer  have  proved  for 
the  most  part  a  failure.     Guarantee  of  ration  has 


THE   FOOD    PROBLEM  99 

been  for  the  most  part  a  failure.  The  substitutions 
have  been  in  part  a  success  from  the  nutritional 
point  of  view,  but  cannot  be  regarded  as  a  success 
from  the  point  of  view  of  the  tastes  of  the  indus- 
trial classes  concerned.  Certainly  if  a  rationing 
system  cannot  succeed  in  Germany  it  cannot  hope 
to  succeed  anywhere. 


PART  II 
THE  TECHNOLOGY  OF  FOOD  USE 


,1"N1VERar"'  OF  CALIFORNIA 
*ANTA  BARBARA  COIXEGE^^y 


CHAPTER  V 

THE   PHYSIOLOGY  OF   NUTRITION 

In  the  contemplation  of  a  diet  four  factors  must 
be  taken  into  consideration,  two  intrinsic  and  two 
extrinsic.  The  two  intrinsic  factors  are  determined 
by  the  physiology  of  nutrition  and  the  psychology  of 
alimentation.  The  external  factors  are  the  supply 
of  foodstuffs  and  the  influence  of  trade.  Under 
ordinary  conditions  in  the  life  of  a  nation,  with  cer- 
tain commodities  the  factors  of  supply  and  trade 
have  as  much  influence  on  the  selection  of  a  diet 
as  the  factors  of  nutrition  and  psychology.  At 
first  sight  it  might  appear  that  the  factor  of  supply 
must  necessarily  predominate  over  the  influence  of 
trade,  and  this  is  of  course  true  in  the  final  analysis ; 
but  with  a  supply  that  is  to  be  regarded  as  normal 
and  sufficient,  influence  of  trade  operates  so  as  to 
place  certain  foods  in  positions  of  predominance  and 
others  in  positions  of  subordination  that  do  not  at 
all  correspond  to  the  essential  values. 

The  influence  of  trade  is  a  composite.  It  includes 
elements  of  production  (including  fertilizer,  cost 
of  labour,  price  of  machinery,  transportation  and 

103 


104  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

climatic  conditions)  ;  nationalities  of  consumers  in 
different  zones;  trade  policies;  the  influence  of  ad- 
vertising and  publicity;  artificial  manipulation  of 
markets,  beginning  with  the  primary  market  and 
extending  through  the  entire  chain  of  distribution 
to  the  consumer;  and  includes  finally  a  factor  that 
may  be  termed  "  the  psychology  of  trade,"  a  definite 
tendency  of  commodities  to  move  in  certain  direc- 
tions that  is  not  fully  capable  of  analysis  on  the 
basis  of  known  economic  and  commercial  relations, 
but  which  is,  in  the  final  estimation,  probably  an  ex- 
pression of  the  efficiency  of  particular  individuals. 

In  the  diet  of  a  people,  all  of  these  factors  play  a 
role  in  times  of  peace  and  prosperity.  The  greater 
the  prosperity  and  the  freer  the  choice  of  individual 
action,  the  less  influential  is  the  factor  of  the  physio- 
logical nutrition  of  the  body.  With  complete  free- 
dom of  choice,  divested  of  the  influence  of  the  four 
factors  described,  wide  scope  is  afforded  for  the 
personal  variable  that  extends  from  individualism 
to  idiosyncrasy,  an  expression  of  the  democratic 
viewpoint  in  relation  to  the  personal  habits  of  the 
individual. 

Under  conditions  of  stress  the  factors  of  physi- 
ology of  nutrition  and  supply  of  foodstuffs  assume 
more  and  more  predominance  over  the  factors  of 
influence  of  trade  and  psychology  of  the  diet.  Ef- 
forts to  influence  the  consumption  of  foodstuffs  by 


THE   FOOD    PROBLEM  IO5 

a  people  lie  in  the  direction  of  giving  greater  pre- 
dominance to  the  facts  of  nutrition  from  the  purely 
physiological  standpoint,  under  the  existing  condi- 
tions of  supply.  Uncontrolled,  this  is  liable  to  re- 
sult in  harsh  repression  of  the  psychology  of  the 
diet  on  the  one  hand  and  in  reckless  elimination  of 
the  influence  of  trade  on  the  other.  Particularly  the 
exclusion  of  the  psychological  relations  of  the  diet 
is  a  mistake  easily  accomplished  but  difficult  of  re- 
pairment.  The  ideal  adjustment  is  a  composite 
of  all  factors;  for  a  people  as  a  whole  it  is  better 
to  secure  a  moderate  degree  of  efficiency  in  the  bal- 
ancing of  all  factors  than  to  secure  a  high  degree 
of  efficiency  in  one  group,  as  that  of  physiological 
alimentation,  viewed  as  animal  nutrition. 

In  order  that  the  average  individual  possessed  of 
a  general  education  and  the  cultured  viewpoint  of 
American  citizenship,  but  devoid  of  technical  train- 
ing, may  be  able  to  understand  the  subject  of  nutri- 
tion from  the  standpoint  of  the  four  named  factors, 
it  is  necessary  that  the  principal  facts  known  to  hold 
in  the  nutrition  of  the  animal  body  be  understood. 

From  the  standpoint  of  nutrition  the  body  is  a 
machine  —  a  complicated  machine  —  and,  of  course, 
something  more  than  a  machine.  Viewed  from  the 
standpoint  of  energy  relations  (that  is,  the  produc- 
tion of  heat  and  the  conversion  of  energy  into  work) 
the  animal  body  presents  a  strict  analogy  to  a  ma- 


106  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

chine.  With  a  well-designed  motor,  one  may  per- 
form work  involving  the  use  of  gasoline  possessing 
one  hundred  units  of  heat,  as  determined  by  analy- 
sis and  measurement  of  the  heat.  In  the  working 
of  this  motor,  it  will  be  found  on  measurement  that 
from  25  to  30  per  cent  of  the  energy  of  the  fuel, 
according  to  circumstances  in  the  design  of  the  mo- 
tor, will  be  converted  into  work ;  the  remainder  will 
be  converted  into  heat  and  dissipated  as  such. 
When  a  labourer  performs  a  similar  act  of  work, 
it  will  be  found  that  fuel  has  been  burned  in  an 
entirely  analogous  manner,  and  that  of  the  energy 
contained  in  the  fuel  consumed,  between  25  and  30 
per  cent  will  be  converted  into  work  and  the  bal- 
ance converted  into  heat  and  dissipated.  The  per- 
centage of  fuel  converted  as  work  is  termed  the 
mechanical  efficiency  of  the  machine,  and  the  effi- 
ciency of  a  soldier  on  the  march  is  about  the  same 
as  that  of  the  engine  of  the  truck  that  is  hauling 
the  ammunition.  When  the  man  becomes  tired  his 
efficiency  falls;  when  the  engine  departs  from  ac- 
curate adjustment,  its  efficiency  falls.  If  for  any 
reason  in  internal  economy  the  burning  of  food- 
stuffs in  the  body  is  imperfect,  as  is  the  case  in  cer- 
tain diseases,  then  the  efficiency  falls;  if  in  the  ad- 
justment of  the  carburetor  the  burning  of  the  gaso- 
line is  imperfect,  the  efficiency  of  the  motor  falls. 
Viewed  more  closely,  the  animal  body  presents 


THE   FOOD   PROBLEM  107 

striking  differences  from  even  the  perfect  machine. 
The  machine  must  be  repaired;  the  animal  body  is 
self-repairing.  The  machine  must  be  lubricated  in 
addition  to  having  fuel  supply;  the  animal  body  is 
self -lubricating  in  the  sense  that  what  might  be  com- 
pared to  the  lubricants  of  the  machine  are  produced 
within  the  body.  Lubrication,  upkeep  and  replace- 
ment are  all  external  in  the  motor,  internal  in  the 
body.  A  machine  must  be  built  by  external  hands ; 
the  animal  body  possesses  the  power  of  multiplica- 
tion of  the  species.  The  human  body  possesses 
finally  the  power  of  self -direction  of  its  operations ; 
the  machine  lacks  entirely  the  power  of  self-direc- 
tion except  such  as  may  be  mechanically  introduced 
and  maintained. 

A  clear  distinction  must  be  made  between  the 
energy  equivalents  of  heat  and  muscular  work  on 
the  one  hand  and  of  other  physiological  functions 
and  mental  operations  on  the  other  hand.  A  man 
lying  in  perfect  quiet,  performing  mental  operations 
of  prodigious  intensity,  will  produce  no  more  body 
heat,  according  to  our  present  methods  of  measure- 
ment, than  if  his  mind  were  not  engaged.  The 
movement  of  a  nerve  impulse  down  a  nerve  can  be 
shown  by  extremely  minute  methods  of  measure- 
ment to  be  accompanied  by  evolution  of  heat;  but 
applied  to  an  entire  body  the  amount  of  heat  that 
must  accompany  mental  operations  is  so  small  as  to 


108  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

fall  within  the  range  of  error  of  measurement  of 
heat  involved  in  the  maintenance  of  the  body  tem- 
perature. Practically,  therefore,  fuel  is  not  re- 
quired for  mental  work ;  and  no  more  foodstuffs  are 
required  for  a  sedentary  man  engaged  in  mental 
operations  than  in  idleness. 

A  number  of  other  physiological  functions,  such 
as  the  influence  of  the  ductless  glands  and  the  oper- 
ation of  the  special  senses,  possess  heat  relations  so 
minimal  as  to  be  of  no  importance  when  considered 
from  the  standpoint  of  the  food  requirements  of 
the  body.  Therefore,  for  practical  purposes  we 
may  say  that  the  fuel  needs  of  the  body  are  repre- 
sented solely  by  two  requirements;  requirement  for 
heat  to  maintain  the  body  temperature  of  the  resting 
body  and  the  requirement  of  energy  for  the  main- 
tenance of  the  muscular  work  of  respiration,  circu- 
lation, alimentation,  and  physical  exertion.  It  is 
convenient  to  separate  rather  arbitrarily  the  factors 
of  heat  production  and  muscular  work  from  those 
of  repair  and  upkeep  of  the  adult  body  and  growth 
of  the  young  body,  both  in  the  qualitative  and  quan- 
titative sense. 

The  factors  involved  in  these  various  relations  of 
nutrition  may  be  classified  under  six  headings  to 
which  must  be  added  two  that  are  of  importance  in 
the  act  of  digestion  and  therefore  secondarily  of 
importance  to  the  state  of  nutrition.     The  first  six 


THE    FOOD    PROBLEM  IO9 

are  protein,  fat,  carbohydrate,  mineral  salts,  vita- 
mines,  and  water;  the  two  alimentary  factors  are 
bacteria  and  indigestible  residue  of  the  diet. 

PROTEIN 

Under  the  term  protein  we  understand  all  sub- 
stances allied  to  what  is  commonly  termed  albumin, 
—  as  the  casein  of  milk,  the  white  of  egg,  the  plasma 
of  muscles,  gelatine,  and  the  serum  of  blood.  Pro- 
tein is  the  substance  of  which  flesh  is  primarily  com- 
posed. Blood  contains  about  8  per  cent  of  protein ; 
the  white  of  egg  about  12  per  cent;  lean  meat  about 
20  per  cent;  the  common  grains  about  10  per  cent; 
milk  a  little  over  3  per  cent;  some  of  the  beans  as 
high  as  30  per  cent ;  potatoes  a  little  over  1  per  cent, 
etc.  All  living  organisms,  plant  or  animal,  are,  in 
the  final  analysis,  composed  of  cells  and  structures 
derived  from  cells.  The  essential  component  of  the 
cell  is  termed  protoplasm  and  the  chief  constituent 
of  protoplasm  is  protein. 

Protein  is  not  a  unit  substance.  There  are  many 
kinds  of  protein  and  the  variations  are  due  to  differ- 
ences in  composition.  Proteins  are  organic  sub- 
stances of  so  large  a  molecular  size  that  the  individ- 
ual molecules  can  be  seen  under  a  microscope  when 
viewed  with  oblique  illumination.  Proteins  are 
composed  of  aggregations  of  simpler  substances 
known  as  amino-acids.     About  20  amino-acids  are 


IIO  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

known  and  the  different  proteins  contain  variable 
numbers /of  these.  It  is  the  variation  in  components 
and  in  the  amount  of  the  several  components  that 
causes  the  physical  and  chemical  differences  in  pro- 
teins. All  proteins  are,  in  their  final  analysis,  of 
vegetable  derivation;  and  animal  proteins  represent 
transfers  to  the  animal  body  of  amino-acids  created 
in  plant  life.  One  gram  of  protein  yields  to  the 
body  4.2  calories  of  heat. 

The  structure  of  proteins  may  be  compared  to 
the  architecture  of  a  house.  A  house  contains  brick, 
stone,  concrete,  plaster,  glass,  floors,  roofing,  doors, 
windows,  iron  pipes,  etc.  An  architect  could  con- 
struct out  of  the  same  materials  in  the  same  amounts 
houses  that  would  present  entirely  different  external 
and  internal  appearances ;  and  in  a  similar  way  pro- 
teins exist,  consisting  of  the  identical  amino-acids 
in  practically  identical  proportions,  that  have  differ- 
ent chemical  and  physical  properties  depending  upon 
the  architecture,  that  is,  the  manner  in  which  the 
different  amino-acids  are  built  together.  It  has 
thus  become  a  common  expression  to  term  the 
amino-acids  the  "  building  stones  of  protein." 

Now  the  animal  body  must  receive  in  the  diet  the 
amino-acids  from  which  it  builds  its  own  proteins. 
Certain  amino-acids  can  be  formed  in  the  body,  but 
other  amino-acids  cannot  be  formed  in  the  body 
and  the  diet  must  contain  them.     These  amino-acids 


THE   FOOD    PROBLEM  III 

we  speak  of  as  the  indispensable  amino-acids. 
When  a  protein  contains  all  of  the  amino-acids  or 
contains  the  indispensable  ones  and  the  others  in 
such  amounts  as  to  enable  the  body  to  fill  its  require- 
ments, we  speak  of  this  as  a  complete  or  balanced 
protein.  If,  however,  the  protein  is  deficient  in 
certain  of  the  essential  amino-acids  or  contains  a 
large  preponderance  of  some  one  of  the  other  amino- 
acids,  we  speak  of  the  protein  as  incomplete  or  un- 
balanced. The  balanced  protein  is  able  to  fulfil  all 
of  the  protein  requirements  of  an  animal  body ;  the 
unbalanced  protein  is  not.  When  an  animal  is  fed 
a  diet  of  unbalanced  protein,  growth  cannot  be  main- 
tained and  if  the  defect  be  serious  enough,  the  ani- 
mal will  waste. 

The  amount  of  protein  required  in  the  diet  de- 
pends upon  two  variables:  (i)  Upon  the  inten- 
sity of  wear  and  tear  and  upkeep  in  the  particular 
animal  concerned;  and  (2)  upon  the  nature  of  the 
proteins  of  the  diet,  whether  balanced  or  unbalanced. 
With  a  particular  animal,  if  the  diet  contains  bal- 
anced proteins  a  much  smaller  amount  will  be  re- 
quired than  if  the  diet  contained  only  unbalanced 
proteins.  In  general,  less  protein  of  animal  origin 
is  required  to  maintain  equilibrium  than  with  the 
use  of  plant  protein. 

Assuming  that  the  proteins  in  the  diet  are  bal- 
anced or  within  the  range  of  adaptation,  the  amount 


112  THE    FOOD    PROBLEM 

of  protein  required  in  the  animal  body  is  surprisingly 
small.  Growth  consists  of  dimensional  and  numer- 
ical increase.  Certain  cells,  like  the  cells  in  the 
blood  and  the  lining  cells  of  the  skin  and  mucous 
membranes,  have  a  limited  span  of  life;  they  die 
and  must  be  replaced.  Other  cells,  however,  en- 
dure for  the  entire  life  of  the  individual.  The 
number  of  cells  in  the  biceps  muscle  of  the  new- 
born child  is  the  same  as  will  be  present  when  that 
child  has  developed  to  maturity;  the  growth  con- 
sists entirely  in  increase  in  the  dimensions  of  the 
cells.  Now  the  requirements  of  growth  for  a  day 
are  so  small  that  they  scarcely  appear  in  comparison 
to  the  wear  and  tear  needs  of  the  day.  In  practi- 
cal dietetics,  a  growing  child  of  a  certain  weight 
requires  very  little  more  protein  than  an  adult  of 
that  same  weight.  The  chief  concern  in  the  diet  of 
a  growing  child  is  not  the  amount  of  protein,  but 
the  presence  of  balanced  protein.  While  the  total 
amount  of  protein  per  unit  of  weight  is  very  little 
less  in  the  growing  child  than  in  the  adult,  the 
amount  of  essential  amino-acids  is  distinctly  larger. 
For  this  reason, it  is  particularly  important  in  the 
diet  of  the  child  to  secure  a  large  percentage  of  the 
intake  of  protein  in  the  form  of  balanced  protein, 
namely,  that  of  milk.  It  is  a  safe  rule  that  40  per 
cent  of  the  protein  of  the  diet  of  growing  children 
should  be  balanced  protein  obtained  from  animal 


THE   FOOD    PROBLEM  113 

products.  In  the  case  of  the  adult,  this  may  safely 
fall  to  less  than  20  per  cent. 

This  does  not  mean  that  vegetarianism  in  the 
strict  sense  is  impossible.  It  is  possible,  but  it  is 
difficult.  A  person  having  at  his  disposal  a  wide 
variety  of  cereals  and  plants  for  selection  could  ob- 
tain a  diet  balanced  in  protein,  although  the  amount 
of  protein  eaten  to  insure  this  would  have  to  be 
larger  than  when  animal  products  are  used.  Vege- 
tarianism is  much  more  difficult  with  the  child  than 
with  the  adult.  It  is  difficult,  although  possible,  to 
raise  a  child  without  milk,  eggs,  or  meat;  it  is  not 
in  the  least  difficult,  under  conditions  of  modern 
markets,  for  an  adult  to  practise  strict  vegetarianism 
with  success.  It  will  mean  a  large  and  bulky  diet, 
and  probably  an  expensive  diet ;  but  the  balanced 
protein  can  be  secured  for  the  adult  without  much 
difficulty. 

If  the  proteins  be  balanced  a  gram  of  protein  a 
day  per  kilo  weight  is  more  than  sufficient  to  cover 
all  of  the  needs  of  the  body,  the  wear  and  tear  and 
upkeep.  It  is  also  sufficient  to  cover  the  needs  of 
growth  in  the  young.  The  mother's  milk  contains 
less  than  10  per  cent  of  its  energy  in  the  form  of 
protein,  but  it  maintains  the  highest  intensity  of 
growth  in  the  life  of  the  individual.  Obviously,  the 
amount  of  protein,  if  balanced,  contained  in  mother's 
milk,  would  be  sufficient  for  any  later  period. 


114  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

Under  upkeep  and  wear  and  tear  we  understand 
that  cells  in  the  act  of  fuctioning,  like  machinery  in 
operation,  undergo  breakdowns.  There  must  be 
replacements  within  cells ;  just  as  a  particular  piece 
of  a  gasoline  motor,  like  a  piston  ring,  may  break 
and  have  to  be  replaced,  so  a  small  portion  of  living 
cells  'disintegrates  and  must  be  replaced.  This  wear 
and  tear  and  upkeep  is  the  largest  fraction  of  the 
protein  turn-over  of  the  body. 

If  more  protein  is  ingested  than  is  required  to 
maintain  growth,  wear  and  tear  and  upkeep,  it  is 
destroyed  in  the  body.  The  body  does  not  store 
in  the  sense  that  the  body  stores  fat.  No  matter 
how  great  the  excess  of  protein  beyond  the  needs 
of  the  body,  the  needless  protein  is  destroyed  and 
end-products  appear  in  the  urine.  Now,  since  pro- 
tein is  an  expensive  form  of  food  to  produce  in  na- 
ture and,  therefore,  expensive  in  the  market,  we 
ought  to  reduce  the  ingestion  of  protein  to  some- 
where near  the  point  of  need.  Protein  consumed  in 
excess  of  the  tissue  needs  becomes  a  mere  fuel,  but 
a  very  expensive  form  of  fuel  and  one  that  pos- 
sesses in  addition  a  residue  to  be  eliminated  in  the 
urine.  The  difference  between  sugar  and  protein 
as  fuel  may  be  compared  to  the  difference  between 
crude  oil  and  coal.  Sugar  burns  completely  and 
leaves  no  ash ;  protein  burns  incompletely  and  leaves 
an  ash  and  this  ash  must  be  eliminated,  imposing 


THE   FOOD   PROBLEM  115 

upon  the  kidneys  a  useless  labour,  comparable  to  re- 
moving ashes  from  a  grate.  Certainly  no  engineer 
would  use  a  coal  with  ashes  if  he  could  for  the 
same  price  or  a  smaller  price  use  an  ashless  fuel; 
and  whenever  protein  is  consumed  in  excess  of  the 
tissue  needs,  it  amounts  to  selecting  deliberately  a 
fuel  with  a  large  ash  instead  of  a  fuel  with  no 
ash. 

The  consumption  of  protein  is  high  in  new  coun- 
tries where  there  is  a  large  amount  of  land  per 
capita,  with  many  head  of  live  stock  per  capita; 
it  is  low  in  countries  of  congested  population 
where  the  per  capita  of  domesticated  animals 
is  low.  The  consumption  of  protein  is  high  with 
people  of  means  and  low  in  a  nation  of  poverty. 
Thus  the  highest  consumption  of  protein  is  seen  in 
Australia  and  New  Zealand;  the  lowest  consump- 
tion is  seen  in  India,  Japan,  and  China.  The  con- 
sumption in  the  United  States  and  England  is  high, 
as  an  expression  of  wealth.  The  consumption  of 
protein  in  the  form  of  meat  varies  largely  in  differ- 
ent nations;  the  ingestion  of  plant  protein  does  not 
vary  so  widely. 

Intense  controversy  has  occurred  during  recent 
years  as  to  whether  meat  possesses  in  the  diet  prop- 
erties that  are  not  yet  measurable  on  the  basis  of 
either  analysis  or  experience.  It  is  contended  that 
the  strength  and  virility,  in  the  physical  and  intel- 


116  THE    FOOD    PROBLEM 

lectual  senses,  that  together  constitute  the  forces  of 
civilization  as  seen  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  race,  as  dis- 
tinguished from  the  Chinese  or  East  Indian,  are  due 
to  the  greater  consumption  of  meat.  This  argu- 
ment is  not  valid.  The  consumption  of  meat  is 
much  higher  in  Australia  and  New  Zealand  than  in 
England.  The  consumption  of  meat  in  this  coun- 
try was  much  higher  40  years  ago  than  it  has  been 
in  France  for  a  long  time  —  as  long,  indeed,  as  rec- 
ords exist  there.  Now,  no  one  will  contend  that 
Americans  possess  attributes  in  any  direction  not 
possessed  by  the  French  that  can  be  reasonably  as- 
cribed to  our  greater  ingestion  of  meat.  When  one 
compares  a  sallow,  anaemic  East  Indian  with  a 
rugged  Englishman  it  is  easy  to  be  led  astray  and 
to  ascribe  the  difference  to  the  meat  in  the  diet  of 
the  Englishman  as  against  the  cereal  in  the  diet  of 
the  East  Indian;  but  there  are  so  many  factors  to 
be  taken  into  account  that  no  such  conclusion  is 
warranted.  There  are  vegetarian  peoples  who  are 
as  rugged  in  comparison  to  the  East  Indian  as  is 
the  Englishman.  The  Englishman  is  free  of  in- 
testinal parasites,  whereas  practically  all  East  In- 
dians harbour  one  or  many  varieties  of  intestinal 
parasites.  The  hookworm  campaign  in  our  coun- 
try has  afforded  to  our  people  an  illustration  of  the 
veritable  transformation  to  be  accomplished  in  a 
people  without  change  of  diet,  simply  by  removal 


THE   FOOD    PROBLEM  117 

of  intestinal  parasites.  The  diet  of  the  East  Indian 
is  not  merely  a  vegetable  diet ;  it  is  a  poor  vegetable 
diet.  For  the  growing  child  there  is  no  question 
that  protein  of  animal  origin  is  very  desirable  and, 
indeed,  from  a  practical  point  of  view  in  the  diet- 
ing of  communities,  indispensable;  but  after  the 
fraction  of  protein  known  to  be  essential  —  for  the 
adult,  20  per  cent  of  one  gram  daily  per  kilo  body 
weight  —  has  been  covered  by  the  ingestion  of  pro- 
tein of  animal  origin,  it  is  immaterial  with  what 
protein  the  balance  of  the  intake  is  covered,  and 
there  is  no  gain  in  an  ingestion  of  protein  in  excess 
of  the  denominated  amount.  The  average  inges- 
tion in  America  is  at  least  50  per  cent  in  excess  of 
need. 

FAT 

A  certain  amount  of  native  fat  is  required  in  the 
diet.  Fat  exists  in  the  protoplasm  of  every  cell. 
The  body  forms  fat  from  sugar  easily;  therefore, 
the  necessary  factor  in  native  fat  is  not  the  chem- 
ical substance,  fat.  If  the  fat  intake  falls  below 
a  certain  figure,  especially  with  the  child,  disturb- 
ances of  nutrition  ensue.  Now  the  amount  of  fat 
concerned  is  so  small  that  the  body  could  easily  se- 
cure this  amount  from  sugar.  In  this  fat  intake 
are  two  factors :  one  relating  to  the  essential  proc- 
esses of  growth,  the  other  relating  to  less  essential 


Il8  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

relations  in  a  diet.  One  gram  of  fat  yields  to  the 
body  9.3  calories  of  heat. 

A  diet  low  in  fat  does  not  lend  itself  to  our  nor- 
mal types  of  cooking.  Foods  prepared  without 
fat  are  not  naturally  cooked  and  do  not  suit  the 
taste.  A  diet  low  in  fat  is  rapidly  digested  and 
inasmuch  as  the  sense  of  satiation  in  alimentation 
is  in  part  connected  with  the  duration  of  the  process 
of  digestion,  fat-free  foods  do  not  give  the  normal 
satisfaction.  These  two  factors,  the  use  of  fat  in 
cooked  food  and  the  acceleration  of  the  process  of 
digestion  in  the  absence  of  fat,  account  for  the 
dissatisfaction  felt  in  Germany  at  present  with  the 
low  fat  intake.  This  is  in  part  a  matter  of  habit; 
the  low  fat  intake  in  Germany  today  is  as  high  as 
the  normal  fat  intake,  weight  for  weight,  in  Japan. 
Indigestion  may  ensue  in  any  individual  who  con- 
tinuously follows  a  diet  that  does  not  give  digestive 
and  physiological  satisfaction. 

Native  fats  of  animal  origin  contain  a  special  sub- 
stance indispensable  for  growth.  This  is  a  fat- 
soluble  vitamine  and  will  be  described  with  water- 
soluble  vitamines  under  the  discussion  of  these  in- 
teresting bodies. 

The  desirable  fat  content  of  the  diet  of  an  adult 
may  be  stated  to  be  not  below  40  grams  per  day, 
but  many  individuals  will  find  50  or  60  grams  much 
more  compatible  with  their  tastes.     For  the  gen- 


THE    FOOD    PROBLEM  119 

eral  uses  of  fat  in  the  preparation  of  food  one  fat 
is  as  good  as  another;  vegetable  fats  are  just  as 
good  as  animal  fats  —  oleomargarine,  cottonseed 
oil,  olive  oil,  corn  oil,  peanut  oil  just  as  good  S3 
butter,  lard,  tallow,  or  suet.  The  use  of  fats  in 
the  diet  for  the  preparation  of  food  is  a  matter  of 
culinary  art  For  our  entire  population,  daily  in- 
gestion of  50  grams  of  fat  could  not  fail  to  satisfy 
the  most  extreme  tastes.  In  the  case  of  the  child, 
the  vegetable  fats  cannot  be  compared  to  the  ani- 
mal fats,  especially  to  butter  fat.  Butter  fat,  in 
other  words  milk,  contains  a  high  concentration  of 
the  indispensable  vitamine  of  growth,  and  for  this 
reason  in  growing  children  a  certain  amount  of  the 
fat  taken  ought  always  to  be  milk  fat.  If  the 
amount  of  milk  that  furnishes  the  balanced  protein 
be  present  in  the  diet  of  the  child,  we  may  be  sure 
that  the  essential  amount  of  growth-producing  sub- 
stance is  also  present.  The  claims  of  one  reinforce 
the  claims  of  the  other  and  make  it  a  public  duty  to 
secure  for  every  child  in  the  slums  of  our  cities  that 
amount  of  milk  daily  that  is  necessary  to  maintain 
the  normal  processes  of  growth  and  development. 
When  the  child  is  weaned  it  is  transferred  to  cow's 
milk,  which  for  a  time  takes  over  the  entire  sus- 
tenance of  the  child.  As  the  child  grows  older  and 
other  foods  are  added,  the  relative  amount  of  its 
food  derived  from  the  daily  milk  falls  gradually. 


120  THE    FOOD    PROBLEM 

With  the  poor  in  our  city  slums  children  frequently 
are  denied  milk  after  the  fifth  year;  with  the  classes 
of  better  means,  milk  is  continued  in  the  diet  of  the 
child  until  adolescence.  With  a  well-selected  diet, 
such  as  is  possible  to  people  of  means,  it  is  less 
necessary  to  continue  milk  in  the  diet  up  to  the 
time  of  adolescence;  but  with  the  people  of  poorer 
means,  where  a  proper  diet  is  rarely  selected,  it  is 
very  important  to  continue  the  use  of  milk  in  the 
diet  of  the  child  as  long  as  possible.  For  this  rea- 
son, the  maintenance  of  an  adequate  milk  supply  for 
cities  at  as  low  a  price  as  possible  becomes  a  matter 
of  much  more  than  mere  nutritional  importance. 

CARBOHYDRATE 

Under  the  head  of  carbohydrate  are  included  all 
of  the  starches  of  cereals,  tubers  and  vegetables  of 
all  kinds  and  the  sugars.  These  carbohydrates  all 
have  the  same  ultimate  meaning  in  nutrition,  since 
in  the  act  of  digestion  and  resorption  they  are  all 
converted  into  one  chemical  state,  glucose.  Carbo- 
hydrate is  not  absolutely  necessary  in  the  diet. 
Eskimos  and  other  flesh-eating  tribes  subsist  for 
years  on  animal  products.  Nevertheless  the  body 
requires  a  certain  amount  of  sugar,  since  sugar  is 
an  essential  component  of  cells  and  the  circulating 
fluids  of  the  body  contain  a  quite  constant  percent- 
age of  sugar.     When  protein  is  utilized  a  certain 


THE    FOOD    PROBLEM  121 

amount  of  sugar  is  formed,  and  when  an  individual 
subsists  entirely  upon  meat  and  fat  the  sugar  de- 
rived from  the  meat  is  sufficient  to  supply  the  body 
with  the  sugar  that  is  required.  The  need  of  car- 
bohydrate, in  excess  of  the  small  amounts  required 
by  the  cells,  is  as  a  fuel;  and  carbohydrate  occupies 
its  predominant  position  in  the  diet  because  it  is 
the  cheapest  fuel.  As  a  fuel  sugar  is  more  quickly 
utilized  than  fat.  When  the  body  has  available  for 
use  both  sugar  and  fat,  and  physical  work  is  under- 
taken, the  body  always  burns  sugar  first ;  it  is  only 
when  the  stores  of  sugar  in  the  body  have  become 
depleted  that  the  body  burns  fat  to  maintain  work. 
We  therefore  speak  of  sugar  as  the  primary  fuel 
and  fat  as  the  secondary  fuel,  though  they  are 
entirely  interchangeable ;  and  in  practical  experience 
it  is  largely  immaterial  whether  one  supports  body 
work  and  body  heat  by  combustion  of  sugar  or  fat ; 
it  is  a  question  of  taste  and  economics.  One  gram 
of  carbohydrate  yields  to  the  body  4  calories  of  heat. 
The  amount  of  carbohydrate  required  in  the  diet 
depends  therefore  upon  climate  and  upon  physical 
work.  Given  an  adult  resting  man  of  70  kilos 
body  weight,  the  amount  of  protein  required  as 
previously  stated  may  be  set  at  70  grams,  equal  to 
300  calories  —  a  food  calorie  is  that  amount  of 
food  which  will  produce  heat  enough  to  raise  one 
litre  of  water  one  degree  centigrade.     The  amount 


122  THE   FOOD    PROBLEM 

of  fat  required  for  the  maintenance  of  normal  nu- 
trition may  be  set  at  40  grams,  equal  to  370  calories. 
The  individual  of  70  kilos,  resting,  fasting,  in  a 
room  at  tropical  temperature,  will  produce  let  us 
say  1750  calories.  Subtracting  from  this  the  sum 
of  the  heat  values  of  protein  and  fat,  will  leave 
1080  calories  to  be  covered  by  carbohydrate,  if  the 
cheapest  fuel  is  to  be  used,  equal  to  270  grams. 
One  could  maintain  the  body  heat  of  this  individual 
by  the  ingestion  of  a  corresponding  amount  of  fat 
(which  would  be  115  grams),  or  also  by  the  in- 
gestion of  270  grams  of  protein.  A  sedentary  life 
requires  100  to  possibly  200  additional  grams  of 
carbohydrate;  active  work,  400  or  500;  hard  work, 
up  to  or  even  exceeding  1000  grams.  In  actual 
practice,  men  who  work  hard  do  not  cover  all  of 
their  fuel  needs  with  carbohydrate;  they  use  both 
carbohydrate  and  fat  in  order  to  reduce  the  bulk 
of  the  diet.  Sugar  is  a  particularly  available  fuel 
for  hard  work;  direct  experiments  indicate  that 
sugar  introduced  into  a  working  individual  will  be 
utilized  in  as  short  a  time  as  fifteen  minutes.  The 
heat  production  of  the  new  born  babe  is  about  600 
calories  per  day,  that  of  the  sedentary  man  about 
2500,  and  the  figure  rises  with  physical  work  to  as 
high  as  five  thousand  or  more  calories.  The  ra- 
tion of  our  army  provides  4400  calories.  The  heat 
production  of  women  is  less  than  that  of  men.     The 


THE   FOOD    PROBLEM  I 23 

per  capita  food  need  in  terms  of  calories  is  between 
seventy-five  and  eighty  per  cent  of  the  food  need 
of  the  average  adult  male. 

Now  in  the  use  of  food  in  actual  life  we  do  not 
find  protein,  fats  and  carbohydrate  separately,  but 
find  them  commingled  in  different  proportions  in 
different  foods.  Thus,  the  cereals  contain  on  an 
average  of  70  per  cent  of  carbohydrate  and  10  per 
cent  of  protein.  Milk  contains  all  three ;  meat  con- 
tains protein  and  fat;  and  many  of  the  legumes, 
such  as  the  soya  bean,  contain  large  amounts  of 
protein,  fat  and  carbohydrate.  The  green  vege- 
tables are  poor  in  all,  containing  most  carbohydrate 
and  very  little  fat.  With  the  diet  so  arranged  as 
to  contain  the  needed  amounts  of  animal  products 
in  order  to  secure  balanced  protein  and  the  fat- 
soluble  vitamine,  experience  indicates  that  if  the 
diet  contains  enough  energy  units  to  support  the 
individual,  it  contains  enough  protein  and  fat  to 
meet  the  needs  of  the  body.  One  does  not  need 
to  be  concerned  about  the  protein  intake  in  a  normal 
mixed  diet,  since  it  is  practically  impossible  to  se- 
cure the  amount  of  carbohydrate  necessary  to 
maintain  the  work  of  the  individual  without  at  the 
same  time  securing  the  protein ;  and  the  same  state- 
ment holds  for  fat.  It  is  only  when  individuals  in 
poor  circumstances,  in  attempting  to  reduce  the 
cost  of  living  to  the  lowest  level,  subsist  upon  very 


124  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

one-sided  diets,  consisting  of  few  articles  to  the 
practical  exclusion  of  animal  products,  that  ab- 
normalities in  nutrition  occur.  A  diet  of  potatoes 
alone  has  maintained  individuals  in  apparent  health 
over  a  period  of  several  years.  One  can  live  on 
mixed  cereals  alone  so  far  as  protein,  fat  and  car- 
bohydrate are  concerned.  From  the  economic 
point  of  view  it  is  important  to  calculate  the  com- 
ponents of  a  ration  from  the  standpoint  of  protein, 
fat  and  carbohydrate;  but  from  the  nutritional 
point  of  view,  this  is  less  important  in  the  normal 
mixed  diet  in  a  civilized  community. 

MINERAL   SALTS 

The  body  requires  mineral  salts  for  the  skeleton 
and  for  the  maintenance  of  the  normal  physical 
state  of  the  body  cells  and  circulating  fluids.  The 
chlorides,  phosphates  and  carbonates  of  lime, 
sodium,  potassium,  calcium,  magnesium  and  iron 
are  the  bodies  most  largely  concerned.  These 
mineral  matters  are  obtained  in  the  diet  in  cereals, 
fruits  and  vegetables.  In  a  normal  mixed  diet  it 
is  rare  to  secure  a  deficiency  in  salts ;  it  is  only  when 
the  diet  is  extremely  one-sided  or  repressed  that 
a  deficiency  in  mineral  matters  appears.  This 
deficiency  in  mineral  intake  is  more  important  in 
childhood  than  in  adult  life.  A  safeguard  here  lies 
in  the  abundant  use  of  milk,  which  contains  all  of 


THE   FOOD    PROBLEM  125 

the  mineral  matters  needed  for  the  body.  A  diet 
consisting  of  white  patent  flour  alone  would  not 
contain  the  necessary  mineral  matters;  a  diet  con- 
sisting of  potato  alone  would  contain  the  necessary 
mineral  matters.  The  addition  of  fats  to  white 
patent  flour  would  not  furnish  the  necessary  mineral 
matters.  Much  more  mineral  matter  is  contained 
in  grain  offal  than  in  patent  flour.  Individuals  who 
prefer  bread  made  of  patent  flour  must,  therefore, 
secure  their  mineral  salts  from  fruits  and  vegetables, 
and  this  is  entirely  practicable.  If,  however,  it  is 
not  possible  to  secure  fruits  and  vegetables,  then 
the  diet  must  contain  flour  made  of  the  whole  grain 
in  order  to  obtain  the  necessary  mineral  matters. 

VITAMINES 

Under  vitamines,  we  understand  two  kinds  of 
substances  whose  presence  in  the  body  is  essential 
to  normal  health  and  growth.  These  vitamines  are 
designated  in  accordance  with  one  of  their  pro- 
nounced properties,  namely,  that  of  solution,  as 
water-soluble  vitamine  and  fat-soluble  vitamine. 

The  water-soluble  vitamine  is  present  in  cereals, 
fruits,  vegetables,  meats,  and  in  milk.  If  food- 
stuffs are  consumed  in  a  natural  state,  the  water- 
soluble  vitamine  is  abundantly  available.  It  is, 
however,  destroyed  by  prolonged  heating  and  there- 
fore in  the  preparation  of  foods  some  of  the  water- 


126  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

soluble  vitamine  may  be  destroyed.  The  cereals 
contain  the  water-soluble  vitamine  in  the  outer 
layers,  and  it  is,  therefore,  not  present  in  patent 
flour,  but  is  present  in  whole  wheat  flour.  The 
vitamine  of  the  cereals  is  not  destroyed  by  the 
amount  of  heat  used  in  the  ordinary  act  of  baking. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  vitamines  in  vegetables  may 
be  destroyed  in  the  ordinary  act  of  canning  where 
the  heating  is  severe.  Therefore,  an  individual 
subsisting  upon  bread  made  of  a  patent  flour  and 
canned  vegetables  and  canned  meat  would  be  apt 
to  exhibit  after  a  length  of  time  nutritional  dis- 
turbances related  to  the  absence  of  water-soluble 
vitamine.  In  the  Orient,  a  diet  of  polished  rice 
and  fish  leads  to  the  disease  termed  "  beri-beri," 
which  is  cured  by  the  administration  of  fruits, 
vegetables,  or  by  the  consumption  of  unpolished 
rice.  A  diet  composed  predominatingly  of  patent 
white  flour  and  lard  or  other  pork  products  is  apt 
to  lead  to  nutritional  diseases,  such  as  have  been 
observed  in  Labrador;  and  it  seems  probable  that 
pellagra  is  due  largely  to  the  absence  of  water- 
soluble  vitamine.  It  is  a  common  misconception 
that  these  vitamines  reside  only  in  the  outer  hull 
of  grains  and  that,  therefore,  all  individuals  should 
use  whole  wheat  flour.  This  is  incorrect,  for  fruits 
and  vegetables  are,  as  already  stated,  rich  in  these 
vitamines. 


THE   FOOD   PROBLEM  I 27 

The  fat-soluble  vitamine  is  not  present  in  the 
cereals  to  any  material  extent.  It  is  present  in 
leaves  and  in  many  roots.  If  animals  be  fed 
wholly  upon  cereals  they  will  exhibit  after  a  space 
of  time  nutritional  disturbances.  If  the  diet  con- 
tains leaves  and  roots,  such  disturbances  will  not 
appear.  A  balanced  ration  for  domesticated  ani- 
mals consists  therefore  of  cereals  and  leaves  or 
roots.  Now  when  these  leaves  and  roots  are  con- 
sumed by  animals,  the  fat-soluble  vitamine  passes 
into  the  tissues  of  the  animal  and  passes  also  into 
the  milk.  The  fat-soluble  vitamine  is  present  in 
milk  to  a  higher  concentration  than  in  any  other 
foodstuff.  It  is  this  that  gives  to  milk  its  pre- 
dominant influence  over  the  process  of  growth, 
since  absence  of  fat-soluble  vitamine  shows  its  most 
pronounced  effect  in  cessation  of  growth.  Since 
children  cannot  digest  such  leaves  and  roots,  it  is 
imperative  that  vitamine  be  offered  to  them  in  the 
form  of  milk.  It  is  of  importance  to  insist  that 
the  fat-soluble  vitamine  is  not  present  in  whole 
grains  and  is  therefore  not  present  in  whole  wheat 
bread.  It  is  also  important  to  know  that  fat- 
soluble  vitamine  is  for  us  much  more  important 
than  the  water-soluble  vitamine.  The  water-solu- 
ble vitamine  is  practically  everywhere;  but  the  fat- 
soluble  vitamine  is  largely  localized  in  a  few  food- 
stuffs, and  these  must  be  present  in  the  diet  in  the 


128  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

proper  amounts.  It  is  especially  important  that 
the  diet  of  the  woman  in  gestation  should  contain 
an  abundance  of  fat-soluble  vitamine  in  the  form 
of  milk  or  leaf  vegetables. 

WATER 

No  discussion  of  the  need  of  water  in  the  body  is 
necessary  beyond  the  mere  statement  that  water  is 
required  in  the  act  of  digestion ;  that  a  certain  water 
concentration  is  essential  to  the  life  of  the  cells; 
that  water  must  be  provided  for  renal  elimination; 
and  that  the  need  for  water  depends  beyond  this 
upon  the  necessary  elimination  of  water  in  the 
maintenance  of  body  heat  through  the  respiratory 
and  cutaneous  systems.  There  are  many  fads 
connected  with  the  drinking  of  water.  There  is  a 
common  notion  that  water  taken  with  meals  is  in- 
jurious. If  mastication  of  the  food  be  carefully 
carried  out  and  water  be  consumed  between  the 
swallowing  of  food,  the  consumption  of  a  moderate 
amount  of  water  is  advantageous.  The  idea  that 
water  with  meals  is  conducive  to  obesity  is  only 
true  if  the  use  of  the  water  is  conducive  to  the  in- 
gestion of  excessive  amounts  of  food. 

The  normal  diet  should  contain  an  indigestible 
residue  in  order  to  furnish  a  normal  bulk  to  the 
stools.  This  is  not  a  statement  of  animal  physi- 
ology; it  is  a  statement  of  the  physiology  of  the 


THE   FOOD    PROBLEM  120, 

civilized  individual.  Experimental  investigations 
in  animals  and  X-ray  observations  on  human  beings 
indicate  that  the  alimentary  tract  of  the  child 
normally  reacts  with  an  evacuation  of  the  bowels 
following  each  ingestion  of  food.  This  is  seen  in 
the  babe  and  would  appear  throughout  normal  life 
if  it  were  not  trained  out  of  the  individual  in  order 
to  have  his  habits  conform  to  the  conventions  of 
civilized  existence.  Investigations  among  savages 
in  various  sections  of  the  world  have  indicated  that 
savages  evacuate  the  bowels  after  every  act  of  eat- 
ing, and  there  are  in  civilized  communities  consid- 
erable numbers  of  individuals  who  have  retained 
or  re-acquired  the  normal  muscular  habits  of  the 
primitive  alimentary  tract.  With  most  individuals, 
however,  the  muscular  tone  of  the  intestine  loses 
its  normal  response  and  depends  for  its  reaction  to 
a  certain  extent  upon  the  mass  of  the  intestinal 
content.  The  mass  of  the  stools  consists  of  the 
secretions  of  the  alimentary  tract,  the  unresorbed 
foodstuff  that  was  digestible  but  not  resorbed,  and 
the  indigestible  components  of  the  foodstuffs. 
Fruits  and  vegetables  leave  a  large  residue.  The 
residue  of  cereals  is  heavy  if  the  whole  grain  is  con- 
sumed. The  residue  of  meats,  dairy  products, 
patent  flours  and  vegetable  oils  is  very  small  since 
their  digestion  is  practically  complete  and  they  con- 
tain little  indigestible  residue.     It  is  quite  imma- 


I30  THE   FOOD    PROBLEM 

terial  from  what  the  indigestible  residue  is  derived, 
whether  from  fruits,  vegetables  or  the  hulls  of 
grains.  This  is  a  question  of  individual  taste  and 
of  the  reaction  of  the  individual  alimentary  tract. 

PSYCHOLOGY   OF   THE  DIET 

These  factors  described  compose  the  physiology 
of  digestion.  They  comprise  the  known  facts  of 
digestion  in  animals  that  hold  for  human  beings 
so  long  as  the  human  being  can  be  compelled  to  act 
like  an  animal.  They  will  hold  strictly  for  savage 
tribes  who  have  a  physiology,  but  little  psychology, 
of  nutrition.  As  one  ascends  in  the  scale  of  civili- 
zation, the  laws  of  the  physiology  of  nutrition  do 
not  lose  their  validity,  but  the  psychology  of  nu- 
trition assumes  constantly  greater  importance  until 
finally,  with  the  average  individual  of  our  day  and 
country,  the  psychology  of  the  diet,  from  the  stand- 
point of  the  individual  and  of  the  community,  is  as 
important  as  the  physiology  of  nutrition.  It  is  not 
sufficient  that  the  diet  contains  the  denominated 
protein,  fat,  carbohydrate,  vitamines,  mineral  mat- 
ter, etc.  It  must  contain  them  in  certain  ways; 
it  must  be  prepared  according  \o  certain  stand- 
ards; it  must  be  consumed  under  particular  sur- 
roundings; it  must  be  served  in  accordance  with 
selected  procedures.  A  thousand  and  one  external 
influences  determine  whether  or  not  a  diet,  correct 


THE   FOOD    PROBLEM  I3I 

in  itself  from  the  standpoint  of  animal  physiology, 
will  be  regarded  as  correct  and  proper  by  the  con- 
sumer. The  appearance  of  food,  and  its  palata- 
bility,  and  the  previous  experience  of  the  individual 
have  a  determining  influence  so  profound  that  they 
may  actually  prevent  the  digestion  and  utilization 
of  a  particular  foodstuff.  It  is  thus  true,  not  as  a 
matter  of  notion  but  as  a  matter  of  fact,  that  a  diet 
that  would  be  entirely  proper  and  comfortable  for 
a  Russian  peasant  would  fail  as  nourishment  for 
the  highly  specialized  organism  of  a  Russian  artist. 
There  is  of  course  a  great  deal  under  cover  of  the 
term  "  psychology  of  nutrition "  that  is  purely 
arbitrary  idiosyncrasy,  that  will  disappear  under 
repression.  There  is,  however,  a  great  deal  that 
is  real  and  that  bears  directly  not  only  upon  the  in- 
gestion of  food  and  upon  the  sense  of  satiation  but 
operates  also  to  alter  the  normal  processes  of  diges- 
tion. 

In  a  period  of  stress,  such  as  at  present  confronts 
the  American  people,  it  is  incumbent  upon  every 
family  to  attempt  a  separation  of  the  true  psy- 
chology of  the  diet  from  false  psychology,  idiosyn- 
crasy, and  from  the  fads  with  which  our  ideas  of 
diet  have  become  infested.  We  have  a  maze  of 
nonsense  surrounding  our  ideas  of  food  that  must 
be  removed  if  we  are  to  face  clearly  and  handle 
efficiently   the    food   problem   that   confronts   our 


I32  THE    FOOD    PROBLEM 

people.  So  long  as  people  believe  that  corn  meal 
is  heating,  that  barley  cannot  be  eaten  in  summer, 
that  the  quality  of  meat  is  determined  by  the  size 
of  the  animal,  that  the  digestibility  of  eggs  varies 
with  the  colour  of  the  hens,  etc.,  etc.,  that  long  will 
it  be  impossible  for  such  individuals  to  reconstruct 
their  diet  to  conform  to  the  correct  physiology  and 
psychology  of  alimentation.  It  is  necessary  to 
retain  those  features  of  the  psychology  of  alimen- 
tation that  make  for  refinement  in  life  and  satis- 
faction in  nutrition;  but  also  equally  necessary  to 
discard  wasteful  idiosyncrasies,  vulgar  supersti- 
tions and  pseudo-scientific  fads. 

INFLUENCE  OF  TRADE 

Trade  influences  our  diet  either  essentially  as  a 
result  of  trade  conditions  or  through  manipulation. 
Commercial  trade  practices  influence  to  a  large 
extent  the  consumption  of  foodstuffs  in  the  United 
States.  It  is  a  truism  among  the  manufacturers  of 
foodstuffs  that  a  properly  conducted,  adequately 
financed  campaign  in  advertising  will  create  a 
market  for  any  new  foodstuff,  irrespective  of  any 
question  of  superiority  from  the  nutritive  point  of 
view.  The  history  of  breakfast  foods  is  an  illumi- 
nating illustration.  There  is  no  nutritive  basis  for 
the  establishment  of  any  one  or  for  its  replacement 
by  another.     The  factors  that  count  most  in  ad- 


THE   FOOD    PROBLEM  133 

vertising  are  method  of  preparation,  saving  of 
labour  by  the  housewife,  taste,  attractiveness  of  the 
package,  keeping  qualities,  in  other  words,  second- 
ary considerations.  The  prices  are  high  compared 
with  that  of  the  original  cereal  from  which  they 
were  derived;  for  the  price  covers  the  advertising, 
the  cost  of  the  special  package,  the  marketing,  the 
bulky  freight  tonnage,  and  the  overhead  charges  of 
the  retailer  who  has  to  carry  many  brands  that 
occupy  much  space  upon  his  shelves.  None  of 
these  fancy  breakfast  foods  have  any  nutritive  su- 
periority over  the  cereals  out  of  which  they  are 
manufactured.  They  represent  the  desire  of  the 
American  housewife  to  save  work,  to  have  some- 
thing new  and  to  serve  an  infinite  variety  of  cereals. 
Such  an  influence  of  trade  is  purely  artificial  and 
is  based  largely  upon  the  restlessness  of  the  con- 
sumer. There  are,  however,  other  trade  influences 
of  an  entirely  different  nature.  The  trade  pushes 
certain  commodities  because  handling  of  them  is 
profitable;  conditions  of  transportation,  portability, 
keeping  qualities,  evenness  of  production,  ability  to 
purchase  by  contract,  financial  responsibility  of  the 
producer,  standardized  quality  of  the  wares,  etc., 
all  are  involved.  The  grocer  takes  up  each  new 
breakfast  food  as  an  ephemeral  trade,  knowing  that 
it  will  soon  be  supplanted.  He  takes  up  a  certain 
line  of  bacon  knowing  that  it  will  be  always  the 


134  THE    FOOD    PROBLEM 

same;  the  firm  manufacturing  the  article  is  re- 
sponsible, the  product  is  guaranteed,  and  it  repre- 
sents a  staple  in  the  mind  of  the  consumer.  In  this 
sense,  that  which  is  staple  in  trade  becomes  a  staple 
to  the  consumer.  The  flour  of  a  certain  section 
keeps  better  than  the  flour  of  another  section;  the 
sweet  corn  of  a  certain  area  is  tenderer  than  that 
of  another  region.  A  large  number  of  such  trade 
factors  will  at  once  suggest  themselves  to  the  reader. 
They  are  essentially  related  to  conditions  in  the 
supply  and  themselves  really  represent  adaptations 
of  the  trade  to  conditions  in  the  supply. 

Now,  in  times  of  stress,  trade  conditions  cannot 
be  maintained,  and  particularly  under  conditions  of 
war,  with  disorganization  of  labour  and  transporta- 
tion, it  becomes  increasingly  difficult  for  the  trade 
to  maintain  its  standards.  This  results  in  disor- 
ganization of  trade  values,  depreciation  of  the  worth 
of  markets,  and  sophistication  of  foodstuffs,  adul- 
teration, and  lowering  of  values.  The  standard 
article  costs  relatively  and  absolutely  more  to  pro- 
duce than  the  ordinary  article,  and  with  the  dif- 
ferential between  the  two  becoming  increased,  there 
is  motive  for  sophistication  and  the  consumer  is 
tempted  to  leave  the  standard  staple.  A  strict 
enforcement  of  pure  food  laws  under  these  circum- 
stances, though  very  much  more  difficult  than  in 
peace  time,  becomes  the  absolute  duty  of  the  gov- 


THE   FOOD   PROBLEM  I 35 

ernment.  Prior  to  the  declaration  of  war  against 
Germany  by  Italy,  Italian  exporters  flooded  Ger- 
many with  sophisticated  foodstuffs  that  were 
eagerly  seized  in  the  condition  of  stress  in  Ger- 
many because  of  the  attractiveness  in  price  dis- 
tinction. It  is  difficult  to  enforce  pure  food  laws 
under  these  circumstances  because  many  of  our 
pure  food  laws  represent  not  factors  of  nutrition, 
but  rather  factors  of  trade.  It  is  so  easy  for  a 
manufacturer  to  allow  his  product  to  vary  from 
his  statement  of  contents  if  it  is  difficult  in  the 
markets  to  secure  the  substances  necessary  to  main- 
tain in  the  content  the  statement  of  contents. 

In  the  United  States  at  present,  it  is  practically 
impossible  to  secure  for  purposes  of  manufacture 
the  assortment  of  imported  wares  from  the  Orient, 
peppers,  spices,  etc.,  that  were  available  in  peace 
time,  and  it  becomes  very  difficult  for  the  manu- 
facturer of  a  trade-mark  brand  to  maintain  the 
content  under  which  his  market  was  originally  de- 
veloped. Under  conditions  of  stress  it  becomes 
much  more  difficult  to  grade  grains  and  the  manu- 
facturers of  flour  find  it  increasingly  difficult  to 
select  grains  and  blend  them  in  order  to  produce 
the  flour  to  which  their  trade  has  become  accus- 
tomed. When  cattle  are  rushed  to  market  in  poor 
condition  and  pigs  at  a  very  low  weight,  it  is  diffi- 
cult for  the  packing  houses  to  maintain  the  standard 


I36  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

of  their  products.  Throughout  the  entire  trade, 
the  temptation  to  use  fillers  that  are  innocuous,  but 
devoid  of  nutrient  value,  is  difficult  to  resist. 
Freedom  of  action  in  the  trade  is  much  restricted 
under  conditions  of  war,  and  such  restriction  in 
freedom  of  action  often  so  operates  to  modify  the 
influence  of  trade  as  to  render  it  pernicious.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  efficiency  of  governmental  ma- 
chinery in  the  maintenance  of  food  laws  is  at  the 
same  time  greatly  reduced.  When  things  are 
scarce  and  prices  are  high,  even  if  speculation  be 
eliminated,  the  very  attitude  of  the  consumer  tempts 
to  a  modification  of  the  normal  factors  of  trade,  and 
these  modifications  are  usually  in  the  direction  of 
inefficiency  in  terms  of  final  analysis  in  food  units. 
It  is  the  business  of  the  government,  when  the  avail- 
able foodstuffs  must  be  utilized  to  a  more  complete 
extent,  to  itself  control  this  utilization  in  place  of 
leaving  it  to  the  decisions  of  the  interested  traders. 
It  is  not  merely  the  function  of  the  government  in 
war  time  to  increase  production,  to  eliminate  specu- 
lation, to  govern  distribution,  to  make  equitable 
division  of  foodstuffs  to  the  consumer,  to  teach  the 
consumer  proper  utilization  of  foodstuffs  and  the 
elimination  of  all  waste;  it  is  also  the  duty  of  the 
government  to  so  control  relations  of  trade  that 
the  diet  of  the  consumer  is  not  unduly  modified  and 
to  his  detriment.     Any  modification  in  the  factors 


THE   FOOD   PROBLEM  137 

of  trade  in  war  time  will  tend  in  the  direction  of 
reduction  of  efficiency  in  nutrition,  never  in  the 
direction  of  improvement. 

The  question  of  trade  brands  represents  one  of 
the  peculiar  features  of  the  situation  that  merits  a 
moment's  discussion.  If  the  established  high-grade 
trade  brands  are  maintained  in  war  time  this  will 
usually  be  done  at  the  expense  of  the  quality  of  the 
remaining  foodstuffs.  The  people  of  means  will 
purchase  the  standard  maintained  brands,  leaving 
to  the  poor  the  depreciated  grades  of  foodstuffs. 
There  is  no  reduction  in  price,  however,  that  cor- 
responds to  the  depreciation  of  foodstuffs  to  the 
poor  classes.  The  prices  of  the  standard  high- 
grade  brands  are  relatively  the  cheapest  under  such 
circumstances  and  yet  they  are  beyond  the  purchas- 
ing power  of  the  poorer  classes.  This  leads  to  class 
resentment  and  to  inefficiency  in  the  nutrition  of  a 
people;  and  this  has  led  the  European  governments 
practically  to  abolish  such  brands  during  the  course 
of  the  war.  There  is,  for  example,  in  Germany, 
England  and  France  today,  only  a  war  flour;  the 
high-grade  brands  of  the  mills  of  those  countries 
have  been  abolished  for  the  period  of  the  war. 
Germany  used  to  produce  particular  varieties  of 
foods  that  were  widely  exported  —  hams  from 
Westphalia,  sausages  from  Braunschweig,  cakes 
from   Wurttemberg,   chocolates    from   Mannheim, 


I38  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

etc.,  etc.  These  have  all  been  abolished ;  cakes  have 
a  uniform  composition,  hams  and  sausages  are  pre- 
pared in  a  uniform  manner.  The  products  of 
highest  quality  no  longer  exist,  but  the  general 
average  is  above  that  which  would  have  existed  in 
the  lowest  grades  had  the  products  of  highest  grades 
been  maintained. 

To  abolish  the  high-grade  trade  brands  means 
of  course  an  extremely  radical  step,  one  not  to  be 
taken  without  mature  consideration,  since  it  repre- 
sents practically  a  revolution  in  the  practices  of  the 
trades.  In  countries  actively  at  war  under  stress 
of  abnormal  conditions  this  becomes  absolutely  nec- 
essary. It  has  not  yet  been  necessary  in  the  United 
States  to  abolish  the  high-grade  brands  as  has  been 
done  abroad;  but  if  here,  as  abroad,  the  quality  of 
the  ordinary  goods  becomes  seriously  depreciated, 
we  may  expect  strong  public  clamour  for  similar 
action  to  be  carried  through  here,  because  under 
such  conditions  the  maintenance  of  a  high-grade 
trade  brand  means  not  merely  a  commercial  privi- 
lege to  the  particular  producer;  it  means  a  direct 
favouritism  to  people  of  purchasing  power,  and 
this  leads  to  class  discrimination,  bitterness  of 
feeling  and  reduction  in  morale. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE   SOCIOLOGY   OF   NUTRITION 

In  the  previous  chapter  we  discussed  the  physiol- 
ogy of  nutrition,  the  nutrition  of  the  individual  from 
birth  throughout  life  under  the  varying  exigencies 
of  a  normal  existence  in  the  economic  and  social 
sense.  Under  sociology  of  nutrition  we  understand 
the  nutrition  of  a  people  regarded  as  a  unit.  While 
in  the  superficial  sense  one  might  regard  the  nutri- 
tion of  a  people  as  a  mere  multiple  of  the  nutrition 
of  an  individual,  this  is  far  from  the  truth.  Under 
the  normal  conditions  of  life  the  problems  in  the 
sociology  of  nutrition  are  largely  concerned  with 
the  alimentation  of  the  poorest  classes.  The  prob- 
lem of  feeding  and  housing  the  masses  who,  through 
limitation  in  capacity  occupy  necessarily  the  lowest 
station  in  the  scale  of  wage,  has  become  with  each 
decade  a  more  engrossing  and  imperative  problem 
of  society.  Investigations  have  been  carried  out  in 
numbers  by  governmental  agencies.  Efforts  for  the 
amelioration  of  these  conditions  have  in  this  coun- 
try been  largely  carried  out  through  eleemosynary 
organizations  and  in  particular  instances  through 

139 


140  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

the  industrial  corporations  which,  far-sighted  in  ad- 
vance of  their  time,  have  come  to  the  realization 
that  industrial  efficiency  is  incompatible  with  in- 
efficiency in  alimentation  of  the  labourers.  But  no- 
where except  in  Germany  has  the  state  entered  com- 
prehensively into  the  work  of  amelioration  of  the 
conditions  of  life  indicated  in  a  comprehensive  defi- 
nition of  the  sociology  of  nutrition.  Whatever  one 
may  think  of  the  military  caste  and  class  of  Ger- 
many, the  fact  remains  that  before  the  war  Germany 
was  practically  the  only  nation  in  the  civilized  world 
where  governmental  agencies  existed  designed  to 
prevent  sub-nutrition  not  only  in  classes  but  in  in- 
dividuals. 

The  problems  of  the  sociology  of  nutrition  are 
largely  zonal.  There  are  zones  of  large  earnings 
as  against  zones  of  minimal  earnings.  There  are 
zones  of  large  production  of  foodstuffs  and  zones 
of  low  production  of  foodstuffs.  Sub-nutrition  is 
as  frequent  in  certain  agricultural  areas  as  it  is  in 
cities.  For  the  most  part,  viewing  the  problem  of 
the  sociology  of  nutrition  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
historic  doctrines  of  political  economy,  it  is  appar- 
ent that  sub-nutrition  in  classes  results  partly  from 
the  cruel  and  unyielding  application  of  the  law  of 
supply  and  demand  and  partly  from  abrogation  of 
the  operation  of  this  law  through  manipulations  in 
the  processes  of  distribution,  involving  cornering  of 


THE   FOOD    PROBLEM  I4I 

the  market,  arbitrary  deflection  of  the  laws  of  trade, 
speculation  and  extortion.  It  is  most  perplexing  to 
determine  in  a  particular  instance  whether  the  in- 
ability of  the  individual  to  cover  his  nutritional 
needs  with  the  money  at  his  disposal  depends  upon 
the  natural  disparity  of  his  buying  power  with  con- 
ditions in  the  market  of  commodities;  or  whether 
the  limitation  in  his  buying  power  is  due  to  his  in- 
ability to  reach  the  market  of  commodities,  closed 
to  him  by  an  artificial  interference  with  the  law  of 
supply  and  demand.  Quantitatively  viewed,  it  is 
probably  a  fair  statement  to  say  that  at  all  times  five 
per  cent  of  the  people  of  this  country  are  on  the 
verge  of  sub-nutrition  and  that  in  times  of  industrial 
stress  this  proportion  may  rise  much  higher.  The 
phenomenon  is  zonal,  whether  the  result  of  the  ap- 
plication of  the  law  of  supply  and  demand  or  the 
result  of  artificial  abrogation  of  this  law.  The 
acute  stringency  in  foodstuffs  that  developed  in 
New  York  City  during  the  fall  of  191 6  is  fresh  in 
the  minds  of  readers. 

Now  under  conditions  of  war  time,  new  factors 
intervene  that  operate  in  two  directions.  They  op- 
erate at  first  in  the  direction  of  intensification  of 
the  application  of  the  law  of  supply  and  demand. 
They  also  operate  to  place  greater  powers  in  the 
hands  of  business  interests  to  abrogate  the  law  of 
supply  and  demand.     When,  however,  the  opera- 


142  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

tions  of  war  become  very  intensive  and  extensive, 
the  law  of  supply  and  demand  collapses.  At  first 
thought,  one  might  be  inclined  to  doubt  the  truth  of 
this  statement.  Even  in  Germany,  the  objector 
could  urge,  so  long  as  a  rich  man,  if  he  has  the  $75, 
can  buy  a  goose  for  that  figure,  surely  the  law  of 
supply  and  demand  still  holds.  The  illustration  is 
trivial  and  based  upon  a  superficial  consideration. 
When  the  people  of  the  northwest  have  the  money 
to  buy  coal  and  the  coal  mines  have  the  coal  at  the 
pit  and  a  delivery  is  made  impossible  through  the 
break-down  of  transportation,  it  is  idle  to  say  that 
the  law  of  supply  and  demand  still  holds.  The  chief 
factor  in  the  break-down  of  the  law  of  supply  and 
demand  is  the  state  of  transportation.  Through 
specialization  of  industry  throughout  the  world, 
based  upon  fluidity  in  transportation,  production  in 
agriculture  and  manufacture  have  become  more  and 
more  specialized,  more  and  more  zonal.  The  mo- 
ment transportation  fails  to  effect  an  obliteration  of 
these  zones,  the  law  of  supply  and  demand  ceases  to 
be  operative.  Wheat  lies  in  hundreds  of  million 
bushels  in  Australia  and  India,  sugar  in  the  hun- 
dred thousand  tones  in  Java.  Yet  no  insistence  in 
the  call  of  the  purchasing  power  of  the  rest  of  the 
world  suffices  to  bring  them  out.  Starvation  exists  in 
Petrograd  and  want  along  the  Russian  front,  while 
grain  lies  piled  up  a  few  hundred  miles  to  the  rear. 


THE    FOOD    PROBLEM  143 

One  of  the  chief  factors  in  manufacture  is  power 
and  this  power  is  usually  derived  from  coal.  The 
entire  manufacturing  scheme  of  the  world  today 
is  upset  through  the  break-down  of  the  transporta- 
tion of  fuel ;  and  this  disorganization  extends  to  the 
producer  of  the  raw  materials  upon  which  manufac- 
ture is  founded.  There  are  other  factors  operative 
in  addition  to  the  breakdown  of  transportation,  but 
this  is  the  most  potent  in  disastrous  results.  Less 
food  is  produced  in  the  world,  and  more  is  con- 
sumed, since  war  is  hard  work.  But  whatever  fac- 
tors enter,  these  could  be  compensated  for  if  trans- 
portation, using  the  term  in  the  large  sense,  could 
be  held  to  the  normal  plane  of  efficiency.  Break- 
down of  transportation  may  be  relative  or  absolute ; 
relative,  when  shipment  of  the  necessaries  is  neg- 
lected on  account  of  preoccupation  with  military 
tonnage  (as  in  America),  absolute  when  the  total 
carrying  power  of  the  transportation  systems  has 
fallen  below  normal  (present  condition  in  Ger- 
many) . 

The  break-down  of  transportation  affects  the  so- 
ciology of  nutrition  in  that  it  renders  the  zones 
of  production  more  distant  than  in  peace  time  and 
increases  the  differential  between  price  to  the  pro- 
ducer and  cost  to  the  consumer.  It  also  involves 
the  production  of  foodstuffs  because  it  disturbs  the 
natural  flow  of  machinery,   fertilizer,   and  disar- 


144  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

ranges  the  normal  regional  fluctuations  of  labor. 
While,  therefore,  in  the  specific  and  superficial  sense 
it  may  still  be  true  that  the  law  of  supply  and  de- 
mand holds,  in  the  sense  that  if  a  packing  house  has 
a  million  pounds  of  lard  it  goes  to  the  highest  bid- 
der, in  the  broad  sense  the  law  of  supply  and  de- 
mand does  not  today  hold  in  the  United  States  and 
all  considerations  directed  to  the  maintenance  of  the 
normal  sociology  of  nutrition  must  be  based  upon 
recognition  of  this  fact. 

In  the  nutrition  of  a  nation,  as  in  the  nutrition  of 
an  individual,  we  must  distinguish  two  spheres,  if 
the  term  may  be  so  employed,  namely,  the  sphere  of 
necessity  and  the  sphere  of  adaptation.  In  the  diet 
of  an  individual  certain  amounts  of  balanced  pro- 
tein, fat,  carbohydrate,  water-soluble  vitamine,  fat- 
soluble  vitamine,  and  mineral  salts  are  essential. 
Beyond  this  point,  the  individual  may  adapt  his  diet 
to  the  circumstances  of  his  surroundings.  In  the 
nutrition  of  a  nation,  the  minimal  amounts  of  pro- 
tein, fat,  corbohydrate,  vitamines,  and  salts  qualified 
to  maintain  the  total  population  in  a  condition  of 
normal  health  and  strength  are  included  in  the  sphere 
of  necessities.  The  zone  of  adaptation  includes 
everything  outside  of  these.  Viewed  in  the  quan- 
titative sense,  20  to  25  per  cent  of  the  foodstuffs  of 
a  nation  lies  in  the  sphere  of  necessities ;  the  remain- 
der lies  in  the  sphere  of  adaptation.     In  order  to 


THE   FOOD   PROBLEM  I45 

maintain  the  efficiency  of  the  nutrition  of  a  people, 
the  food  control  of  a  nation  at  war  must  guarantee 
to  the  entire  people,  irrespective  of  other  conditions, 
the  minimal  amounts  of  the  named  constituents  of  a 
normal  diet  that  are  essential  to  nutrition.  There 
can  be  no  zone  of  over-feeding  in  these  essentials  in 
one  part  of  the  country  and  a  zone  of  under-feeding 
in  another.  There  must  be  an  even  average  applica- 
tion; otherwise,  disaster  lies  ahead.  Once  this  is 
attained,  the  remainder  of  the  foodstuffs  necessary 
for  nutrition  and  the  maintenance  of  work  may  be 
adapted  in  the  zonal  sense  by  substitution  to  the  con- 
ditions of  production  in  the  particular  area. 

Now,  in  the  order  of  their  importance,  what  are 
the  elements  in  production  that  must  be  maintained 
and  guaranteed  in  equitable  distribution  in  order  that 
the  nutrition  of  a  people  shall  be  maintained  under 
the  stress  of  conditions  of  war? 

MILK 

First  and  most  important  is  the  milk  supply. 
Milk,  including  of  course  butter  and  cheese,  sup- 
plies the  essential  growth  vitamine  for  children,  bal- 
anced protein  for  children  and  adults,  and  an  ade- 
quate supply  of  mineral  matter  for  children.  Milk 
has  in  addition  invaluable  properties  in  the  cuisine 
of  an  Anglo-Saxon  people.  A  certain  amount  of 
milk  is  required  in  the  preparation  of  our  food  and 


I46  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

if  absent  this  would  so  disorganize  the  condition 
of  our  food  and  alter  its  qualities  from  the  psycho- 
logical point  of  view  as  to  exert  a  disastrous  influ- 
ence upon  national  alimentation.  Viewing  the  mat- 
ter by  and  large  and  erring  always  on  the  side  of 
safety,  it  may  be  said  that  the  milk  consumption  of 
the  United  States  should  not  fall  below  one  pint 
of  milk  per  capita  per  day,  or  approximately  45  gal- 
lons per  capita  per  year.  The  milk  production  of 
the  country  has  steadily  fallen  from  95  gallons  per 
capita  per  year  to  probably  70  gallons  today.  A 
range  of  from  45  and  70  gallons  would  seem  to  be 
a  wide  leeway,  but  as  a  matter  of  fact  it  is  much  less 
wide  than  the  figures  would  indicate.  We  must 
subtract  from  the  70  gallons  the  milk  corresponding 
to  the  butter  and  condensed  milk  that  are  exported, 
a  not  inconsiderable  fraction  at  the  present  time. 
The  consumption  of  milk  in  country  districts  is  in- 
evitably higher  than  in  cities.  The  greater  the  pro- 
duction of  milk  over  45  gallons  per  capita,  the 
greater  the  chance  that  each  individual  in  the 
cities  will  receive  that  amount  per  year;  the  nar- 
rower the  margin,  the  more  doubtful  the  equita- 
bility  of  distribution.  There  is  good  evidence  to  in- 
dicate that  during  the  past  six  months  large  groups 
of  population  in  the  United  States  have  not  received 
45  gallons  per  capita  per  year  and  this  not  as  an  ex- 
pression of  mere  poverty.     The  price  of  feed  has 


THE   FOOD   PROBLEM  I 47 

been  very  high.  There  has  been  a  decline  in  the 
relative  effort  of  dairying  as  a  whole,  a  tendency  to 
get  out  of  the  dairying  business,  throughout  the 
country,  because  it  has  not  been  possible  to  increase 
the  sale  price  of  milk  in  proportion  to  the  cost  price 
of  feed. 

The  remedy  lies  primarily  in  increased  milk  pro- 
duction. Necessary  to  this  end  are  increase  in  the 
supply  of  feed,  reduction  in  the  price  of  feed,  alle- 
viation of  the  stringency  of  labour  on  the  farm,  or- 
ganization and  control  of  the  distribution  of  milk, 
reduction  of  general  waste,  elimination  of  special 
waste  of  skimmed  milk  attending  the  manufacture 
of  butter  and  cheese,  the  placing  of  skimmed  milk 
on  sale  in  the  cities,  and  reduction  in  the  cost  of  de- 
livery. The  whole  practice  of  distribution  and 
retail  sale  of  milk  needs  a  thorough  overhaul- 
ing. We  ought  to  aim  to  increase  as  rapidly 
as  possible  the  number  of  milch  cows  from 
the  present  22,000,000  to  26,000,000,  and  this 
increase  must  of  course  be  with  productive  strains 
instead  of  nondescript  stock.  It  must  be  clearly 
realized  that  the  problems  involving  milch  cat- 
tle and  beef  cattle  are  distinct  and  separable. 
One  cannot  turn  beef  strains  into  the  dairy  or  dairy 
strains  into  the  feeding  stalls  with  other  than  in- 
different results.  To  a  large  extent  therefore  the 
problem  of  the  production  of  milk  is  just  as  distinct 


I48  THE    FOOD    PROBLEM 

from  the  problem  of  the  production  of  beef  as  it  is 
from  the  problem  of  the  production  of  mutton. 

Milk  is  always  produced  in  an  intensive  manner 
in  zones  that  correspond  to  congestion  in  population. 
Now,  unfortunately,  the  zones  of  production  of  con- 
centrated feeding-stuffs  and  the  zones  of  production 
of  milk  need  not  coincide.  The  principal  concen- 
trates in  the  feeding  of  milch  cows  are  grain  offal, 
linseed  meal,  oil  cake,  peanut  meal,  and  various  leg- 
umes, including  soya  beans,  cowpeas  and  velvet 
beans.  The  grain  offal  is  produced  in  the  areas  of 
milling.  The  dairy  districts  of  Wisconsin,  Illinois, 
Minnesota  and  Iowa  lie  contiguous  to  the  great  mill- 
ing centres  and  are  thus  able  to  obtain  mill  feed  at 
reasonable  rates,  but  the  great  dairy  areas  of  the 
East  lie  distant  from  the  milling  centres.  Linseed 
meal  is  produced  largely  in  the  northwest,  again 
adjacent  to  the  areas  of  milk  production;  but  oil 
cake,  peanut  meal,  and  the  various  legumes  are 
produced  in  the  South  where  dairying  is  but  slightly 
developed.  The  dairying  areas  of  the  West  occupy 
a  much  more  favourable  position  than  the  dairying 
areas  of  the  eastern  states  and  yet  these  serve  an 
intensely  congested  population. 

An  intensive  development  in  dairying  in  the  in- 
direct sense  has  been  evolved  in  Europe  but  has  re- 
ceived little  attention  in  this  country.  This  is  the 
combining  of  the  processes  of  making  butter  and 


THE    FOOD    PROBLEM  I 49 

margarine.  In  this  country  butter  is  made  from 
cream  secured  by  the  centrifugation  of  milk  and  the 
skimmed  milk  is  then  either  fed  to  swine  or  thrown 
away  —  thrown  away,  unfortunately,  to  a  very  con- 
siderable extent.  In  Europe,  this  skimmed  milk  is 
used  for  the  further  manufacture  of  margarine. 
Vegetable  and  animal  fats  in  proper  proportion, 
largely  vegetable  fats,  are  mixed  with  the  skimmed 
milk  and  churned  out  just  as  butter  would  be,  and 
this  process  may  be  repeated.  In  this  way  a  very 
good  product  is  obtained  which  has  flavours  derived 
from  the  milk.  Within  recent  years  in  Denmark  it 
has  been  the  practice  to  export  nearly  all  of  the 
butter  and  to  consume  in  Denmark  margarine  made 
by  the  churning  of  imported  fats.  Margarine  is 
commonly  called  a  butter  substitute.  It  is,  however, 
not  a  butter  substitute  but  a  supplementary  table  fat. 
Butter  has  a  unique  position  in  the  diet,  par- 
ticularly for  children,  and  there  is  no  substitute  for 
butter  from  this  point  of  view.  In  the  per  capita 
ration  of  a  half  pint  of  milk  per  day  is  included  the 
butter  fraction  that  is  deemed  essential  for  the 
health  of  our  people. 

Beyond  this  amount  of  milk,  however,  fat  is 
needed  in  the  kitchen  and  on  the  table  in  the  same 
way  that  butter  is  consumed.  This  fat  must  have 
some  of  the  physical  characteristics  of  butter  and 
these  physical  characteristics  can  be  given  to  it  if 


I50  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

manufactured  into  margarine  in  accordance  with 
modern  methods.  It  is  necessary  in  the  United  States 
to  increase  the  consumption  of  vegetable  oils.  It  is 
impossible  to  increase  the  consumption  of  vegetable 
oils  as  such ;  they  must  be  passed  through  some  sort 
of  a  fabrication  in  order  to  give  them  physical  quali- 
ties that  are  in  themselves  desirable.  This  can  be 
accomplished  in  one  of  two  ways,  either  by  hydro- 
genation  or  by  the  manufacture  of  margarine.  Hy- 
drogenation  of  a  fluid  fat  results  in  a  solid  product. 
It  is  a  chemical  procedure,  has  no  result  upon  the 
digestibility  or  food  value  of  the  product  and  rep- 
resents an  advance  in  the  utilization  of  fluid  fats. 
An  ounce  of  water-free  butter,  hydrogenated  fat,  and 
margarine  are  equally  valuable  from  the  standpoint 
of  digestibility,  utilization  and  energy  content.  There 
is  not  enough  butter  to  go  around  and  if  good  sub- 
stitutes are  not  supplied,  the  consumption  of  fat  falls. 
People  will  use  hydrogenated  fats  and  margarine 
where  they  refuse  to  use  olive  oil,  cottonseed  oil, 
palm  oil,  peanut  oil  or  corn  oil,  simply  because  the 
use  of  fluid  or  semi-fluid  oils  lies  outside  of  the 
habits  and  customs  of  an  Anglo-Saxon  people. 
There  is  no  such  problem  in  Italy  or  France  because 
the  people  understand  the  use  of  olive  and  other  oils ; 
but  the  problem  does  arise  with  every  northern  peo- 
ple and  there  are  but  two  solutions ;  either  the  people 
must  be  taught  to  use  fluid  vegetable  oils  as  the  peo- 


THE   FOOD   PROBLEM  151 

pies  of  the  South  employ  them,  or  these  fluid  vege- 
table oils  must  be  converted  into  such  a  state  as  meets 
the  customs  and  habits  of  the  people.  The  hydro- 
genated  fats  are  practically  limited  to  the  kitchen ;  the 
place  of  margarine  on  the  other  hand  is  at  the  table. 
This  is  not  a  question  of  price,  it  is  not  a  question  of 
trade  competition ;  it  is  a  question  of  increasing  the 
available  fat  food  of  our  people.  It  can  only  be 
done  by  increasing  the  production  of  butter  or  by  the 
manufacture  of  margarines  that  meet  the  tastes  of 
an  Anglo-Saxon  people.  Viewed  properly,  marga- 
rine, hydrogenated  fats  and  butter  are  not  competi- 
tive ;  they  are  supplementary ;  and  the  very  viewpoint 
in  food  control  that  insists  most  strongly  upon  in- 
crease in  the  production  of  dairy  products  must  at  the 
same  time  urge  the  manufacture  of  margarine  and 
commend  its  use.  The  dairyman  and  creamery 
should  manufacture  margarine  just  as  they  manufac- 
ture butter,  butter  being  the  product  of  the  primary 
churning,  margarine  the  product  of  the  later  churn- 
ing. 

A  survey  of  the  development  of  the  utilization  of 
the  nation's  milk  supply  over  the  past  three  decades 
illustrates  that  here  as  elsewhere  efficiency  in  the 
utilization  of  milk  from  the  nutritional  point  of  view 
has  been  reduced  owing  to  the  increased  demand  for 
butter.  The  percentage  of  our  total  milk  production 
that  is  devoted  to  the  manufacture  of  butter  has 


152  THE    FOOD    PROBLEM 

gradually  risen  to  approximately  60  per  cent.  Two 
decades  ago  the  rural  communities,  including  in  this 
term  the  small  towns,  consumed  a  much  larger 
amount  of  milk  per  capita  than  now.  With  the  in- 
troduction of  the  separator  and  the  perfection  of 
dairy  methods,  it  became  profitable  for  the  farmer  to 
dispose  of  his  milk  in  terms  of  butter  fat  with  only 
partial  utilization  of  the  skimmed  milk  and  this  al- 
most entirely  by  domesticated  animals.  There  is  in 
this  country  practically  no  such  thing  as  the  manu- 
facture of  skimmed-milk  cheese.  Viewing  the  pro- 
duction of  milk  as  a  whole,  the  centrifuge  has  led  to 
reduction  in  the  consumption  of  milk  as  human  food 
and  increase  in  the  consumption  as  butter.  The 
same  thing  is  true  in  Europe  and  the  introduction 
of  the  separator  into  the  highland  districts  of  Ba- 
varia has  produced  such  a  transformation  in  the  diet 
of  the  people  as  to  constitute  a  sociological  problem. 
Viewed  from  the  standpoint  of  utilization  it  is 
much  more  efficient  if  milk  can  not  be  consumed  as 
milk,  to  consume  it  in  the  state  of  cheese  than 
in  the  state  of  butter,  since  the  cheese  contains 
all  of  the  fat  and  the  protein  in  addition.  This 
fact  is  the  basis  for  the  recommendation  of  the  Brit- 
ish food  committee  that  the  production  of  butter  be 
reduced  and  the  production  of  cheese  increased.  On 
the  continent,  skimmed  milk  is  not  wasted.  Large 
amounts  of  skimmed  milk  are  consumed  directly, 


THE   FOOD   PROBLEM  153 

and  a  great  deal  is  used  in  the  manufacture  of 
skimmed  milk  cheese;  the  balance  is  used  as  a  con- 
centrate in  the  feeding  of  swine.  Dried  skimmed 
milk  represents  a  large  future  possibility  of  protein 
nourishment.  Used  in  the  kitchen  in  proper  propor- 
tions, dried  skimmed  milk  and  vegetable  oil  repre- 
sent a  substitute  for  full  milk  and  eggs  in  the  prepa- 
ration of  foods,  being  for  practical  purposes  inferior 
to  eggs  only  in  the  absence  of  colour. 

BREAD 

The  second  indispensable  part  of  a  national  diet 
is  bread.  Bread  constitutes  everywhere,  in  the  quan- 
titative sense,  the  keystone  of  a  nation's  ration,  as 
illustrated  in  the  following  table  : 


Bread 

Protein 

Calories 

Other 

grain 

per  cent 

per  cent 

cereals 

Country 

as  Hour 

of  total 

of  total 

in  grams 

in  grams 

in  diet 

in  diet 

in  diet 

per  day 

United  States 

265 

29 

31 

78 

Great  Britain 

285 

29 

32 

48 

England 

310 

32 

36 

32 

Austria-Hungary     310 

40 

45 

75 

Germany 

310 

34 

40 

14 

Italy 

340 

43 

40 

98 

France 

410 

45 

53 

40 

The  indispensability  of  bread  in  the  ration  is  due 
less  to  its  intrinsic  qualities  than  to  external  proper- 
ties.    The  proteins  of  cereals  are  not  balanced  pro- 


154  THE    FOOD    PROBLEM 

teins.  Grains  contain  very  little  fat-soluble  vitamine 
and  in  a  mixed  diet  the  presence  of  the  water-soluble 
vitamines  of  cereals  is  a  negligible  factor.  The  ex- 
ternal properties  upon  which  the  indispensability  of 
bread  in  a  ration  rests  lie  in  the  physical  qualities  of 
the  glutens  and  allied  proteins  that  permit  of  bread 
being  made  in  the  form  of  a  loaf  that  can  be  pre- 
pared in  large  lots  of  a  uniform  quality  and  appear- 
ance, with  keeping  qualities  enabling  the  storing  of 
supplies.  All  peoples  consume  cereals  cooked  and 
not  baked  in  the  form  of  bread,  some  even  predom- 
inatingly as  in  the  case  of  the  rice  of  the  Orient. 
Since  the  desirability  of  bread  is  based  upon  exter- 
nal qualities,  wheat  ranks  the  highest  among  the 
cereals,  rye  and  barley  next  in  the  order  named,  and 
oats  and  maize  last,  in  proportion  to  the  quality  of 
bread  that  may  be  produced  from  flours  of  these 
cereals.  Wheat  flour  produces  the  whitest  bread  of 
the  lightest  and  best  texture,  uniform  in  quality,  al- 
though it  does  not  keep  as  well  as  rye  bread.  In  the 
earlier  periods  of  the  development  of  European  na- 
tions barley  and  rye  were  the  standard  breads ;  barley 
was  first  replaced  by  rye  and  rye  has  been  later  more 
or  less  replaced  by  wheat.  In  proportion  as  a  con- 
tinental nation  has  risen  in  purchasing  power,  it  has 
supplanted  the  use  of  rye  bread  by  wheat  bread  and 
when  a  period  of  stringency  arises,  it  reverses  the 
process  and  returns  to  rye  bread.     This  is  due  to  the 


THE   FOOD    PROBLEM  155 

fact  that  the  unit  of  production  of  rye  per  area  and 
per  man  labour  is  for  most  sections  of  the  world 
larger  than  for  wheat,  the  conditions  of  the  growth 
of  the  grain  being  more  adaptable,  although  there 
are  many  local  exceptions  to  this  rule. 

Nutritionally  the  cereals  in  a  mixed  diet  are  ap- 
proximately equivalent.  Corn  and  oats  are  some- 
what richer  in  fats,  and  oats  and  wheat  are  some- 
what richer  in  protein.  Rice  is  the  poorest  in  pro- 
tein. All  of  the  cereals  are  poor  in  fat-soluble 
vitamine;  all  are  rich  in  water-soluble  vitamine  and 
mineral  matters.  In  a  mixed  diet,  therefore,  these 
various  cereals  can  be  used  to  replace  each  other  in 
any  proportion  so  far  as  nutritional  units  are  con- 
cerned. 

The  amount  of  the  diet  covered  by  the  use  of 
cereals  will  determine  the  state  in  which  the  cereal 
ought  to  be  employed  in  the  diet.  In  the  proportions 
given  in  the  table,  if  the  diet  contains  the  normal 
amounts  of  dairy  products,  fruit  and  vegetables,  it  is 
immaterial  how  the  grains  be  consumed.  The  finest, 
whitest  patent  flour  represents  about  a  56  per  cent 
extraction  of  standard  wheat;  that  is,  a  60-pound 
bushel  of  first-grade  wheat  will  yield  about  34 
pounds  of  the  best  grade  of  patent  flour.  There  are , 
several  grades  of  patent  flour  and  so-called  straight 
flours  included  in  the  production  of  the  large  mills ; 
and  a  fair  average  for  the  percentage  of  flour  ex- 


I56  THE    FOOD    PROBLEM 

tracted  from  the  unit  of  wheat  in  this  country  is 
about  72  per  cent,  with  a  water  content  of  about  13 
per  cent.  The  remainder  of  the  grain,  representing 
in  toto  28  per  cent  of  the  weight  of  the  wheat,  is 
termed  grain  offal  and  includes  a  number  of  frac- 
tions known  in  the  trade  as  "  red  dog,"  "  shorts," 
"  middlings,"  and  "  bran."  These  include  the  outer 
layers  of  the  kernel  and  the  germ. 

The  grain  offal  contains  a  higher  percentage  of 
both  protein  and  fat  than  does  the  fine  patent  flour 
and  also  a  larger  percentage  of  mineral  matter.  The 
mineral  matters  and  the  water-soluble  vitamine  that 
are  present  in  the  outer  layers  are  of  importance  in 
the  diet,  but  cereals  are  not  the  sole  source  of  water- 
soluble  vitamine  and  mineral  matter.  These  can  be 
obtained  also  in  fruits  and  vegetables;  and  to  the 
American  subsisting  upon  a  mixed  diet  it  is  possible 
to  cover  the  needs  of  the  body  for  mineral  mat- 
ter, water-soluble  vitamine  and  roughage,  either 
by  employing  the  outer  layers  of  the  grain  in  the 
form  of  so-called  whole  wheat  flour,  or  by  the  free 
consumption  of  fruits  and  vegetables.  One  of  these 
two  must  be  included  in  the  diet ;  but  it  is  immaterial 
which  of  the  two  is  employed.  Now,  if  the  total 
cereal  fraction  of  a  diet  runs  toward  the  lowest  fig- 
ures given,  in  other  words,  toward  one-third  of  the 
total  food  value  of  the  diet,  the  use  of  the  whole 
grains  is  of  little  importance.     If,  on  the  other  hand, 


THE   FOOD   PROBLEM  I 57 

a  group  of  men  attempts  to  live  largely  upon 
flour,  with  the  addition  for  example  of  pork  prod- 
ucts, it  would  be  imperative  to  use  whole  wheat  flour 
rather  than  patent  flour.  In  the  ordinary  use  of 
rice  in  the  American  home,  it  is  immaterial  whether 
one  employs  polished  rice  or  whole  rice;  but  in  the 
use  of  rice  in  the  Orient  it  is  imperative  to  employ 
whole  rice  for  at  least  a  fraction  of  the  diet.  Nutri- 
tional diseases  which  appeared  in  one  of  the  armies 
of  the  present  war,  due  to  limitation  of  the  diet  to 
white  crackers  and  canned  meats,  were  promptly 
cured  by  the  administration  of  water-soluble  vita- 
mine  in  the  shape  of  yeast.  The  belief,  however, 
that  the  health  of  a  people  as  a  whole  depends  upon 
the  general  use  of  whole-wheat  bread  as  against 
white  bread  is  based  upon  a  misconception  of  the 
actual  relations  of  the  vitamines  and  salts  in  a 
mixed  diet. 

The  diet  of  our  people  is  built  around  bread  and 
milk.  It  is  therefore  essential  at  this  time  that  the 
normal  ration  of  bread  should  be  maintained  in  order 
to  permit  the  widest  adaptation  around  these  central 
factors.  It  is  also  psychologically  necessary  to  main- 
tain the  quality  and  physical  properties  of  the  bread. 
When  grain  becomes  scarce  one  has  the  choice  be- 
tween maintaining  the  quantity  and  altering  the  qual- 
ity, or  maintaining  the  quality  and  reducing  the 
quantity.     In  general,  the  practice  has  been  to  main- 


158  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

tain  the  quantity  and  lower  the  quality,  though  there 
are  indications  that  this  is  very  easily  overdone. 
The  maintenance  of  quantity  may  be  accomplished 
in  one  of  two  ways  —  by  a  higher  extraction  of  the 
grain  and  by  the  use  of  mixed  flours.  In  the  Euro- 
pean countries  at  war,  the  milling  of  wheat  and  rye 
has  been  advanced  from  the  customary  extraction  to 
about  81  per  cent.  This  81  per  cent  in  England  in- 
cludes as  much  as  17  per  cent  of  water;  in  Germany, 
not  over  14  per  cent;  so  that  the  actual  extraction  is 
highest  in  Germany.  The  reason  for  setting  the  fig- 
ure 81  is  the  fact,  determined  by  experiment,  that, 
using  protein  as  the  criterion,  an  81  per  cent  extrac- 
tion represents  the  maximum  of  utilization  in  the 
process  of  digestion ;  and  since  the  grain  offal  is  of 
great  value  in  feeding  cattle,  there  is  no  gain  in  using 
a  flour  of  higher  extraction.  The  use  of  such  flour 
assures  the  maintenance  of  the  quantity  of  the  loaf 
with  a  reduction  in  the  grain  of  approximately  one- 
sixth.  The  normal  French  ration  of  bread  was  in 
the  neighbourhod  of  a  pound  and  a  quarter  per  day. 
The  present  war  ration  is  a  pound  and  an  eighth,  but 
the  quality  of  the  bread  is  lower.  There  is  a  wide-^ 
spread  agitation  in  France  to  secure  an  optional  reg- 
ulation, permitting  a  choice  between  500  grams  of 
bread  prepared  from  an  85  per  cent  flour  and  40O 
grams  of  bread  prepared  from  a  72  per  cent  flour. 
There  has  also  been  much  complaint  in  Germany 


THE   FOOD   PROBLEM  159 

against  the  coarse  bread,  and  government  regulation 
provides  that  in  the  case  of  invalids  it  is  permissible 
to  use  a  bread  prepared  from  flour  of  lower  extrac- 
tion. 

The  use  of  mixed  flours  presents  points  of  advan- 
tage over  a  higher  extraction  of  the  cereals  in  the 
milling.  Standard  flour  may  be  mixed  with  15  to  25 
per  cent  of  flours  of  rye,  barley,  oats,  rice,  or  corn, 
with  the  maintenance  of  the  physical  properties  of 
the  bread,  with  little  change  in  taste,  and  with  the 
production  of  bread  which  to  a  great  many  people  is 
preferable  to  a  straight  wheat  bread  of  the  graham 
type.  The  best  way  of  looking  at  the  matter  in  a 
democratic  country  is  to  accord  freedom.  Our  gov- 
ernment has  not  altered  the  milling  of  the  wheat  in 
the  manufacture  of  flour.  But  we  are  short  of 
wheat.  We  urge  the  use  of  whole  wheat  flour  and 
the  use  of  mixed  flours,  leaving  it  to  the  discretion, 
taste,  and  patriotism  of  the  individual  to  employ 
standard  flour,  whole  wheat  flour  or  mixed  flour  in 
such  proportions  as  may  be  elected.  With  such 
stringency  in  the  supply  of  cereals  as  is  now  preva- 
lent in  Europe,  this  is  not  possible.  The  choice  is 
there  limited  to  whole  wheat  flour  or  mixed  flour 
and  where  the  stringency  becomes  marked,  as  in  the 
case  of  Germany,  there  is  no  choice  whatsoever ;  the 
state  prescribes  a  flour  composed  of  whole  wheat 
flour  plus  the  admixture  of  flours  of  other  cereals. 


l6o  THE    FOOD    PROBLEM 

One  of  the  standard  breads  of  Germany  during 
the  past  six  months  was  composed  of  55  parts  of 
wheat  flour  and  45  parts  of  rye  and  barley  flour. 
If  the  barley  be  milled  to  a  low  extraction,  as  60  per 
cent,  the  flour  produced  is  one  of  the  best  for  ad- 
mixture with  wheat  flour,  having  the  least  influence 
upon  the  final  product,  with  slight  alteration  in  taste ; 
but  if  barley  be  milled  to  75  or  80  per  cent,  it  usu- 
ally adds  to  the  bread  a  slightly  bitterish  taste.  The 
addition  of  rice  flour  tends  to  contribute  a  pastry- 
like quality.  The  addition  of  rye  darkens  but  does 
not  otherwise  modify  the  loaf  or  taste  to  a  material 
extent.  The  addition  of  corn  tends  to  make  the 
bread  granular;  it  dries  more  easily  and  does  not 
keep  so  well.  The  addition  of  potato,  unless  very 
carefully  done,  tends  to  make  the  bread  soggy,  a 
hard  crust  with  an  area  of  underbaking  in  the  cen- 
tre. Potato  starch  or  potato  flour  has  always  been 
used  on  the  continent  in  the  preparation  of  the  finest 
pastries  and  a  certain  amount,  up  to  possibly  10  per 
cent,  can  be  used  with  careful  methods  in  the  bak- 
ing of  bread  without  leading  to  untoward  results; 
but  the  potato  bread  of  Germany  of  a  year  ago  was 
an  abomination  in  the  eyes  of  the  baker  and  con- 
sumer alike,  since  it  contained  so  much  potato  that 
it  was  not  possible  to  produce  an  article  that  the 
baker  or  consumer  regarded  as  an  acceptable  bread. 

The   decision   as   to  which  alteration   in  bread 


THE   FOOD   PROBLEM  l6l 

should  be  adopted  rests  to  a  large  extent  upon  the 
habits  of  the  people.  If  the  people  are  predomi- 
nantly home  bakers,  then  the  freest  choice  should  be 
permitted.  If  the  people,  on  the  contrary,  are  sup- 
plied by  outside  bakers,  then  early  regulation  is 
preferable  since  it  will  lead  to  the  establishment  of 
a  definite  technique  and  the  production  of  a  stand- 
ard loaf.  On  the  continent  of  Europe  there  is  very 
little  domestic  baking,  practically  all  bread  is  pur- 
chased. In  this  country  about  55  per  cent  of  our 
people  consume  home-made  bread ;  and  under  these 
circumstances  a  moderate  latitude  ought  to  be  per- 
mitted, in  the  event  of  regulation  for  the  control  of 
bread  becoming  imperative. 

Another  important  factor  in  connection  with  the 
type  of  flour  employed  depends  upon  the  habits  of 
the  people  in  the  purchase  of  flour.  If  a  people  con- 
sume flour  soon  after  its  production,  it  is  possible 
to  place  upon  the  market  a  flour  of  high  extraction, 
whereas  this  is  not  the  case  if  the  flour  is  held  in 
the  household  for  a  longer  period  of  time.  The 
white  flours  keep  well;  the  whole  grain  flours  keep 
badly.  The  eggs  of  insects  are  often  deposited  in 
the  grains  and,  in  addition,  bacteria  are  always  pres- 
ent in  the  germ.  It  is  this  tendency  to  decomposi- 
tion that  accounts  in  part  for  the  high  price  of  whole 
grain  flour.  In  a  small  country  like  England  and 
especially  in  a  country  where  bread  is  bought  largely 


I 62  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

from  the  baker,  the  time  that  elapses  between  the 
day  of  milling  and  of  production  of  bread  is  only 
a  few  weeks.  In  this  country  flour  must  keep  four, 
five,  or  six  months  if  it  is  to  give  satisfaction,  since  a 
great  deal  of  bread  is  made  in  the  home  from  flour 
milled  long  previously.  A  flour  that  would  be  satis- 
factory in  keeping  qualities  in  Germany  would  be  un- 
satisfactory in  the  United  States;  and  there  is  no 
way  of  compelling  people  to  buy  flour  in  small 
amounts  and  use  it  quickly,  in  other  words,  to  regard 
it  as  a  perishable  when  according  to  all  domestic  ex- 
perience flour  has  always  been  regarded  as  a  non- 
perishable.  It  has  been  entirely  practicable  for  the 
British  to  produce  an  81  per  cent  flour  in  England; 
but  it  did  not  prove  practicable  to  buy  an  81  per 
cent  flour  in  the  United  States  and  ship  it  to  Eng- 
land under  present  conditions  of  tonnage,  because 
there  were  heavy  losses  from  decomposition.  From 
this  point  of  view,  as  an  obligatory  measure  the  use 
of  mixed  flours  would  be  more  advantageous  in 
this  country  than  the  use  of  whole  grain  flour. 

War-time  experience  has  indicated  that  the  cereal 
consumption  of  a  people  need  not  be  given  entirely 
in  the  form  of  bread.  A  certain  bread  ration  must 
be  determined,  otherwise  the  diet  does  not  seem 
natural  and  the  restriction  will  provoke  resentment ; 
but  beyond  a  certain  point  cereals  may  be  substituted 
for  bread.     In  our  northern  states  the  flour  con- 


THE   FOOD   PROBLEM  I 63 

sumed  is  somewhere  in  the  neighbourhood  of  eleven 
to  twelve  ounces  per  capita  per  day  and  the  con- 
sumption of  other  cereals  somewhere  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  two  ounces,  including  the  breakfast 
foods.  In  our  southern  states,  the  consumption  of 
flour  is  six  or  seven  ounces  and  the  consumption  of 
other  cereals  six  or  seven  ounces.  Indeed,  in  many 
sections  of  the  south,  not  over  one-third  of  the  grain 
consumption  is  in  the  state  of  bread,  the  balance 
being  in  the  state  of  rice  and  corn. 

Even  with  the  nations  that  cling  most  desperately 
to  the  use  of  bread  in  the  diet,  a  certain  amount  of 
bread  may  be  replaced  by  other  cereals.  In  Eng- 
land, they  have  encouraged  the  use  of  oat  meal,  corn 
meal  and  rice,  and  reduced  the  bread  ration,  es- 
pecially in  the  middle  and  upper  classes.  In  Italy, 
it  has  been  possible  to  increase  the  use  of  rice  and 
corn  to  the  point  of  reducing  bread  consumption  to 
one-third  of  the  intake.  Large  classes  in  Italy  are 
content  to  consume  their  cereals  in  the  form  of 
pastes,  corn  and  rice,  with  only  the  occasional  use 
of  bread.  During  this  war,  the  Germans  found 
no  difficulty  in  using  such  amounts  of  other  cereals 
as  were  at  their  disposal.  It  is  only  in  France  that 
it  has  been  difficult  or  indeed  almost  impossible  to 
reduce  the  bread  ration,  which  is  today  practically 
what  it  was  in  peace  time.  The  reason  for  this  is 
deserving  of  more  than  passing  mention,  since  it  is 


164  THE    FOOD    PROBLEM 

imperative  that  we  should  understand  the  exact  sit- 
uation. There  is  no  such  thing  in  France,  prac- 
tically speaking,  as  domestic  baking  of  bread.  The 
bread  is  always  purchased  from  the  baker,  it  is  usu- 
ally purchased  for  a  long  period  of  time  and  must 
keep  well.  The  French  are  perfectly  willing  to 
have  a  bread  made  of  mixed  flour  containing  rye, 
barley,  corn,  or  oat  meal,  but  they  insist  that  the 
cereals  must  be  in  the  form  of  bread.  Corn  bread 
cannot  be  made  in  a  bakery  and  sold.  If  the 
French  people  are  to  use  corn,  oats  or  rice  in  excess 
of  the  amounts  that  can  be  introduced  into  the  loaf 
with  wheat,  such  use  must  be  in  the  home.  In  other 
words,  the  labour  of  preparation  of  rice,  corn  meal 
or  oat  meal  must  be  imposed  upon  the  French- 
woman. 

But  this  represents  the  imposition  of  a  consider- 
able burden.  In  the  first  place,  the  Frenchwoman 
does  not  understand  how  to  cook  these  cereals  and 
she  would  first  have  to  be  taught  how.  The  chil- 
dren of  France  do  not  understand  the  taste  of  these 
cereals  and  they  would  have  to  be  taught  to  eat  them. 
The  actual  time  and  fuel  consumed  in  the  prepara- 
tion of  these  foods  would  represent  a  serious  sacri- 
fice. It  must  be  clearly  visualized  that  all  of  the 
able-bodied  men  in  France  are  at  the  front,  engaged 
in  transportation  or  in  the  manufacture  of  imple- 
ments of  war.     The  only  men  at  home  are  old  men, 


THE   FOOD   PROBLEM  165 

the  hundreds  of  thousands  afflicted  with  tubercu- 
losis, and  the  hundreds  of  thousands  incapacitated 
by  wounds.  The  Frenchwoman  is  carrying  on  the 
agriculture  and  in  the  cities  the  Frenchwoman  is 
carrying  on  all  of  the  odds  and  ends  of  labour  that 
normally  fall  to  masculine  hands.  On  top  of  this, 
is  it  to  be  regarded  as  possible  to  ask  the  French- 
woman to  spend  an  hour  in  the  day  in  the  prepara- 
tion of  rice,  corn  or  oat  meal  ?  Certainly  no  Amer- 
ican who  understands  the  meaning  of  the  war  can 
possibly  justify  such  an  imposition  upon  the  women 
of  France.  This  is  more  than  a  matter  of  judg- 
ment, it  is  a  question  of  conscience.  France  has 
done  much  for  us,  this  little  we  must  do  for  France. 
We  are  short  on  wheat  and  long  on  other  cereals. 
We  are  short  on  wheat  because  our  wheat  crops 
have  been  low  for  two  years,  the  excess  wheat  of 
Australia  and  India  is  inaccessible  on  account  of 
conditions  in  transportation,  and  in  addition  to  this 
we  have  the  obligation  to  ship  increased  amounts  to 
Europe  because  the  wheat  crops  have  failed  upon 
the  fields  of  our  Allies.  This  can  be  accomplished 
only  by  a  reduced  consumption  of  wheat  and  an  in- 
creased consumption  of  other  cereals.  We  have 
already  in  30,000,000  Americans  in  the  south  an 
illustration  of  what  should  be  the  practice  of  every 
one.  If  the  people  of  the  north  would  reduce  the 
consumption  of  wheat  to  the  point  approximating 


I 66  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

the  average  consumption  in  the  south  and  consume 
instead  the  other  available  cereals,  this  would  set 
free  for  export  practically  150,000,000  bushels  of 
wheat.  It  ought  to  be  left  open  to  the  widest  choice 
of  the  individual  family  how  this  substitution  shall 
be  effected.  Some  will  elect  to  save  on  flour  by  the 
use  of  whole  wheat  bread;  others  will  elect  to  pre- 
pare bread  from  mixed  flours;  others  will  elect  to 
use  bread  of  the  usual  type,  but  reduce  the  consump- 
tion one-third  and  replace  it  with  cereals.  People 
who  buy  bread  must  necessarily  adopt  the  latter 
course.  It  will  probably  be  possible  to  evolve  a 
war  bread  at  a  lower  cost  and  including  the  flours  of 
other  cereals.  There  are  hundreds  of  ways  of  pre- 
paring corn  meal,  hominy,  oat  meal,  barley,  and 
rice.  Some  will  prefer  wheatless  meals,  others  will 
prefer  wheatless  days.  Under  these  circumstances, 
there  are  but  two  explanations  for  failure  in  any 
family  to  replace  wheat  with  cereals  in  accordance 
with  the  necessities  of  the  case  —  these  are  sheer 
selfishness  and  disloyalty  —  and  of  these  no  discus- 
sion is  necessary. 


CHAPTER  VII 
the  sociology  of  nutrition"  (Continued) 

MEAT 

The  amount  of  meat  and  meat  products  required 
in  a  normal  mixed  diet  is  much  lower  than  the 
amount  consumed  in  the  United  States.  If  the 
normal  consumption  of  milk  be  maintained,  the 
necessity  for  meat  from  the  standpoint  of  intake 
of  balanced  proteins  is  much  reduced.  If  each  in- 
dividual in  the  United  States  consumes  a  half  pint 
of  milk  per  day,  the  amount  of  meat  that  may  be 
regarded  as  necessary  does  not  exceed  two  ounces 
per  capita  per  day.  If  milk  and  dairy  products  are 
absent  from  the  diet,  meat  ought  to  be  increased  to 
a  minimum  of  four  ounces  per  day.  The  per 
capita  meat  consumption  in  this  country  is  some- 
where in  the  neighbourhood  of  160  pounds  per  an- 
num. Contrasted  with  this  figure,  the  amount  de- 
nominated as  advisable  from  the  nutritional  point 
of  view,  is  only  about  nine-sixteenths  of  the  pres- 
ent consumption.  From  the  standpoint  of  their 
content  in   fat-soluble  vitamine  beef  and  mutton 

167 


I 68  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

are  superior  to  pork.  Lard  and  bacon  are  indeed 
almost  devoid  of  the  substance.  A  diet  of  white 
bread  and  butter  is  a  competent  diet  from  the 
standpoint  of  the  fat-soluble  vitamine,  but  a  diet 
of  white  bread  and  lard  is  not  a  competent  diet. 
This  argument  holds  only  for  the  small  fraction  of 
meat  denominated  as  essential  from  the  stand- 
point of  vitamine.  Mutton  represents  the  first 
choice,  pork  the  second,  and  beef  the  third,  from  the 
standpoint  of  economy  in  flesh  production.  By  this 
is  meant  that  a  unit  of  mutton  is  produced  at  the 
least  cost  of  cereals,  a  unit  of  pork  second,  and  a 
unit  of  beef  third.  This  brings  to  the  fore  an- 
other feature  of  milk  that  is  invaluable,  considered 
from  a  national  standpoint.  Using  protein  as  a 
criterion,  in  the  production  of  milk,  beef,  and  pork 
under  what  may  be  regarded  as  standard  conditions 
in  this  country,  one-third  of  the  protein  of  the  feed 
of  milch  cOws  is  recovered  in  the  milk;  from  15  to 
20  per  cent  of  the  protein  of  the  swine  feed  is  re- 
covered in  the  pork  products;  and  only  10  to  15 
per  cent  of  the  protein  of  the  cattle  feed  is  recov- 
ered in  the  beef  products.  In  other  words,  feed 
given  to  a  milch  cow  returns  during  the  course  of 
a  year  three  times  as  much  protein  as  when  fed  to 
beef  cattle.  A  good  cow  will  produce  in  the  course 
of  a  year's  milk  supply  two  or  three  times  as  much 
protein  as  will  be  contained  in  her  flesh.     As  a  par- 


THE   FOOD   PROBLEM  I 69 

tial  offset  to  this  from  the  economic  point  of  view 
is  the  labour  involved  in  the  dairy  as  against  that 
involved  in  the  feeding  of  beef  and  swine;  but 
even  with  this  included,  there  is  no  question  of  the 
fact  that  the  production  of  milk  represents  the 
highest  recovery  of  feed  units  in  terms  of  human 
food. 

A  reduction  in  the  per  capita  consumption  of  meat 
is  to  be  recommended  entirely  apart  from  any  con- 
sideration of  the  total  protein  of  our  diet.  Nutri- 
tionally we  need  only  two  ounces  of  meat  per  per- 
son per  day.  Meat  represents  under  ordinary 
conditions  an  expensive  form  of  protein  as  com- 
pared to  that  of  cereals,  though  always  a  cheap 
source  of  protein  compared  to  that  of  most  vegeta- 
bles, including  for  the  most  part  in  this  country 
even  the  potato.  As  a  source  of  protein  the  po- 
tato was  last  spring  practically  ten  times  as  ex- 
pensive as  meat.  Our  protein  intake  is  so  far 
above  the  needs  of  our  body  that  we  may  without 
any  question  whatsoever  reduce  the  per  capita 
consumption  of  meat  to  three  or  four  ounces  per 
day  without  the  slightest  hesitation.  This  does 
not  mean  vegetarianism,  but  it  does  mean  eating 
meat  once  or  at  most  only  twice  a  day.  To  see  an 
American  woman  serving  meat  at  her  table  three 
times  a  day  would  impress  the  French  housewife 
as  nothing  less  than  scandalous;  and  this  is  as  true 


I70  THE    FOOD    PROBLEM 

from  the  nutritional  as  from  the  economic  point 
of  view. 

On  the  other  hand  increase  in  the  use  of  fish  is 
to  be  recommended.  From  the  standpoint  of 
vitamine  fish  flesh  is  poor;  but  considered  in  the 
diet  in  excess  of  the  minimal  amount  of  meat  re- 
quired, fish  is  in  every  way  equal  to  animal  flesh, 
unit  for  unit  of  protein  and  fat.  The  use  of  salt 
water  fish  and  other  sea  food  is  therefore  to 
be  recommended  under  all  circumstances.  Meat 
drawn  from  the  sea  is,  from  the  standpoint  of  nu- 
trition, a  clear  gain,  involving  no  nutritional  losses 
in  its  production.  In  particular,  the  use  of  sea 
food  is  to  be  encouraged  by  the  well-to-do.  For 
large  classes  of  our  population  sea  food  is  out  of 
the  question  on  account  of  high  price.  Every 
pound  of  sea  food  consumed  by  the  classes  of  means 
saves  a  pound  of  beef,  mutton  or  pork  for  the  con- 
sumption of  the  poorer  classes  or  sets  free  a  pound 
for  exportation  to  our  Allies.  It  is  a  mistake  to 
urge  simplification  of  the  diet  upon  all  classes. 
The  classes  who  possess  means  should  as  far  as 
possible  subsist  upon  the  rare,  expensive  foods, 
delicacies  if  you  please,  like  oysters,  lobsters,  arti- 
chokes, in  order  that  a  saving  may  be  accomplished 
in  staple  meats,  resulting  in  a  larger  supply  and  a 
lower  price  for  the  poorer  classes  and  for  export. 
This  does  not  represent  favouring  the  wealthy.     It 


THE   FOOD    PROBLEM  I7I 

is  a  mere  economic  situation  to  be  utilized  for  the 
purpose  of  a  saving  in  foodstuffs. 

A  comparison  of  the  consumption  of  meat  with 
that  of  dairy  products  indicates  that  of  approxi- 
mately 33  per  cent  of  the  calories  of  our  diet  thus 
ingested  about  19  per  cent  falls  to  meats  and  only 
14  per  cent  to  dairy  products.  When  these  figures 
are  contrasted  with  the  figures  for  efficiency  in  the 
recovery  of  feeding  units,  the  extent  of  the  inver- 
sion becomes  apparent.  This  ought  to  be  just  the 
other  way  around.  From  every  point  of  view,  it 
would  be  preferable  to  have  the  meat  consumption 
reduced  to  14  per  cent  and  the  dairy  consumption 
increased  to  19  per  cent.  There  is  much  truth  in 
the  dictum  of  Lusk  addressed  to  the  housewives  of 
New  York  City :  "  Do  not  buy  a  pound  of  meat 
until  you  have  purchased  three  quarts  of  milk." 

SUG\R 

The  pre-war  consumption  of  sugar  in  this  coun- 
try was  the  highest  in  the  world,  very  close  to  four 
ounces  per  day.  There  are  four  uses  of  sugar  in 
the  diet  sense:  (1)  in  the  conservation  of  fruits; 
(2)  in  the  cooking  of  food;  (3)  upon  the  table; 
and  (4)  in  the  form  of  sweets,  using  this  term  in 
the  broadest  sense  to  include  candies,  soft  drinks, 
etc.  In  peace  time  sugar  was  a  cheap  article  of 
food.     Sugar  presents  no  advantages  over  starch 


172  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

in  the  diet  except  in  rapidity  of  absorption.  Sugar 
is  available  in  the  muscles  of  a  working  man  15 
minutes  after  it  is  eaten  while  starch  will  not  be 
available  for  hours.  There  is  a  craving  for  sugar 
that  is  natural  in  children.  Sugar  contributes 
enormously  to  the  psychology  of  the  diet  and  a  re- 
duction in  sugar,  like  a  reduction  in  milk,  is  apt  to 
so  upset  the  cuisine  as  to  make  the  diet  unsatisfac- 
tory. With  the  fullest  appreciation  of  the  value  of 
sugar  in  the  preparation  of  the  diet,  the  fact  re- 
mains that  the  American  consumption  of  sugar  is 
nothing  less  than  a  luxurious  excess  and  one  that 
ought  not  to  be  maintained  in  war  time. 

The  necessity  for  a  reduction  in  the  consumption 
of  sugar  is  based  upon  a  sharp  reduction  in  the 
supply  available  to  the  Allied  nations.  The  sugar 
ration  in  France  and  England  has  had  to  be  reduced 
to  about  two  ounces.  It  is  imperative  therefore 
that  the  sugar  ration  in  this  country  should  be  ar- 
bitrarily reduced  or  it  will  be  difficult  to  supply  the 
Allies  with  even  the  reduced  amounts.  It  is  not 
advisable  to  attempt  a  reduction  in  the  use  of  sugar 
in  the  conservation  of  fruits,  upon  the  table  or  in 
the  kitchen,  unless  the  desired  result  can  be  ob- 
tained in  no  other  manner.  The  first  point  of  re- 
duction should  be  in  the  use  of  candies,  soft  drinks, 
and  such  articles;  the  second  point  of  reduction  in 
the  cutting  down  in  table  use  of  sugar,  using  less 


THE   FOOD   PROBLEM  173 

sugar  in  coffee,  upon  desserts,  fruits,  and  cereals. 
If  Americans  will  reduce  their  consumption  of  can- 
dies and  soft  drinks  and  the  table  use  of  sugar  to 
the  plane  of  peace-time  consumption  of  sugar  in 
continental  Europe,  we  should  at  once  reduce  our 
total  sugar  consumption  by  not  less  than  40  per 
cent. 

Under  these  circumstances,  appeal  to  the  people 
of  this  country  to  reduce  the  per  capita  consump- 
tion of  sugar  one  ounce  per  day  cannot  be  regarded 
as  anything  less  than  a  most  reasonable  injunction. 
A  reduction  of  one  ounce  per  capita  per  day  will  set 
free  for  export  over  1,000,000  tons  of  sugar  per 
annum.  One  of  the  developments  of  recent  years 
is  the  multiplicity  of  shops  devoted  almost  ex- 
clusively to  the  sale  of  sweets  and  soft  drinks. 
These  cater  to  the  spoiled  tastes  of  juveniles  and 
adolescents  and  represent  an  undesirable  excres- 
cence in  our  social  development.  A  distinguished 
Senator  of  the  United  States  once  remarked  that  an 
army  of  2,000,000  men  could  be  conscripted  be- 
tween the  ages  of  18  and  25  if  throughout  the 
United  States  the  men  who  spend  their  time  loafing 
in  candy  and  soft  drink  shops  and  pool  rooms  could 
be  drafted.  The  Germans  were  famous  for  their 
conditorei  prior  to  the  war;  but  the  exigencies  of 
war  have  practically  compelled  the  elimination  of 
candies,  cakes,  and  soft  drinks  from  the  German 


174  THE    FOOD    PROBLEM 

dietary.     This  is  one  of  the  most  direct  measures 
of  conservation  available  to  us. 

FRUITS   AND  VEGETABLES 

A  traveler  observing  upon  our  streets  the  pro- 
fusion of  shops  in  which  fruits  and  vegetables  are 
displayed  in  the  most  attractive  manner  might  infer 
that  our  total  consumption  of  fruits  and  vegetables 
is  high.  Our  consumption  of  fresh  fruit  is  high 
and  our  consumption  of  the  exotic  fruits  and  vege- 
tables in  general  is  relatively  large;  but  our  total 
consumption  of  fruits  and  vegetables,  measured  by 
their  role  in  the  diet,  is  low.  Not  over  15  per 
cent  of  the  total  calories  of  our  diet  are  contributed 
by  fruits  and  vegetables.  This  is  due  to  the  fact 
that  we  are  low  consumers  of  the  staple  fruits  and 
vegetables.  Our  consumption  of  potato,  cabbage, 
beets,  and  turnips  is  low.  We  consume  relatively 
large  amounts  of  string  beans  and  green  peas,  but 
small  amounts  of  mature  beans  and  peas.  The  po- 
tato consumption  in  this  country  is  probably  year  in 
and  year  out  not  200  grams  per  capita  per  day. 

One  of  the  most  striking  differences  in  the  pro- 
ductivity of  Germany  and  the  United  States  is  to 
be  seen  in  the  yield  in  potato.  Within  the  small 
available  domain  of  the  German  empire  the  annual 
yield  of  potato  is  45,000,000  tons;  in  this  whole 
country  the  average  mean  yield  is  9,000,000  tons, 


THE   FOOD   PROBLEM  175 

the  difference  in  favour  of  Germany  being  due 
partly  to  large  acreage  in  the  relative  sense  and 
partly  to  extremely  heavy  yields  through  intensive 
cultivation.  Potatoes  in  Germany  have  three  uses 
—  as  foodstuff,  as  stock  feed,  and  in  industry,  par- 
ticularly in  the  manufacture  of  alcohol  and  starch. 
We  do  not  raise  potatoes  for  stock  feed  in  this  coun- 
try. We  feed  the  culls  to  live  stock  only  when  it  is 
quite  as  convenient  to  do  so  as  to  throw  them  away. 
The  fabrication  of  alcohol  from  potatoes  in  this 
country  has  never  been  successfully  accomplished 
and  potato  starch  is  a  curiosity  in  our  trade.  In  the 
south  the  white  potato  is  rarely  consumed ;  in  the 
north,  while  the  potato  appears  regularly  on  the 
table  of  most  classes  once  a  day,  and  of  some  of 
the  labouring  classes  three  times  per  day,  the 
amounts  consumed  are  small.  It  is  regarded  not 
as  a  staple,  but  as  an  addendum  in  the  same  sense 
that  a  green  vegetable  is  esteemed.  The  potato 
contains  only  20  per  cent  of  starch  and  if  it  is  to 
form  a  staple  in  the  diet  it  must  be  consumed  in 
relatively  large  amounts. 

In  war  time  the  world  over  the  potato  has  been 
surrogate  for  grain.  Practically  speaking,  in  a 
mixed  diet  five  parts  of  potato  equal  one  part  of 
grain.  Agriculturally,  in  terms  of  nutritional 
units,  it  is  easily  possible  to  produce  five  nutri- 
tional units  in  the  form  of  potato  to  one  in  the  form 


176  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

of  grain  from  a  unit  piece  of  land.  There  are  of 
course  difficulties  in  the  sudden  expansion  of  the 
growing  of  potatoes,  as  the  selection  of  seed,  prep- 
aration of  the  soil,  proper  fertilization,  adequate 
spraying  against  parasites.  Nevertheless,  what 
can  be  accomplished  is  already  shown  in  the  potato 
yield  of  this  year,  which  is  practically  one-third 
more  than  the  mean  of  pre-war  years.  The  potato 
yield  of  this  year,  sweet  and  white  combined,  will 
be  over  500,000,000  bushels,  the  equivalent  of  100,- 
000,000  bushels  of  wheat,  and  therefore  equal  to 
a  sixth  of  our  wheat  crop,  whereas  under  average 
conditions  the  food  value  of  our  potato  crop  does 
not  exceed  a  twelfth  of  the  wheat  crop. 

Now,  these  potatoes  must  be  eaten  in  substitu- 
tion of  grain,  otherwise,  the  labour  that  was  ex- 
pended as  a  result  of  an  appeal  to  the  patriotism 
of  the  country  to  produce  increased  foodstuffs  is 
lost.  The  utilization  of  such  a  crop  of  potatoes 
brings  with  it  problems  of  harvesting,  storage  and 
distribution,  the  question  of  tonnage  being  one  of 
especial  difficulty.  Potatoes  are  raised  intensively 
in  certain  sections  of  the  country,  as  Maine,  Michi- 
gan and  eastern  Colorado.  Many  other  sections  of 
the  country  do  not  raise  enough  for  local  consump- 
tion. A  survey  of  the  marketing  of  potatoes  over 
a  period  of  five  years  indicates  to  what  a  surpris- 
ing extent  potatoes  are  shipped  from  one  farming 


THE   FOOD    PROBLEM  1 77 

community  to  other  farming  communities.  Pota- 
toes are  available  to  enable  each  individual  in  the 
United  States  to  consume  four  ounces  per  day  in 
excess  of  the  average  consumption  of  our  people, 
and  this  is  urged  upon  all  classes  in  all  sections; 
but  it  is  necessary  for  the  authorities  so  to  or- 
ganize the  marketing,  transportation  and  distribu- 
tion of  potatoes  as  to  bring  the  price  down  at  least 
to  that  of  grain  when  viewed  from  the  standpoint 
of  food  values. 

The  potato  has  certain  particular  properties  in 
the  diet.  It  is  very  rich  in  mineral  matter.  The 
potato  contains  both  of  the  vitamines,  and  the  pro- 
teins are  more  balanced  than  is  usually  the  case  in 
vegetable  proteins.  Potato  starch  is  as  digestible 
as  cereal  starch  and  the  reputation  possessed  by  the 
potato  as  a  food  tending  particularly  to  create 
obesity  is  entirely  unfounded.  There  is  a  very 
large  wastage  in  the  use  of  potato  in  the  kitchen. 
In  ordinary  use  this  is  frequently  as  high  as  25 
or  30  per  cent,  and  a  careful  supervision  of  the 
preparation  of  potatoes  in  the  kitchen  represents 
one  of  the  best  opportunities  for  elimination  of 
waste. 

The  mean  consumption  of  leaf  vegetables  in 
America  is  low.  Of  cabbage,  spinach,  Brussels 
sprouts  and  the  like,  which  are  especially  rich  in 
the   growth-stimulating   substances,   the   American 


I78  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

consumption  is  much  too  low.  There  are  whole 
sections  of  our  population  to  which  these  vegetables 
are  unknown.  Consumption  of  root  vegetables, 
beets,  turnips,  carrots,  is  also  low,  except  among  the 
foreign  born  population.  The  Allied  armies  on 
the  western  front  have  had  worked  out  for  them 
what  is  believed  to  be  an  apparently  ideal  vegeta- 
ble ration.  The  mixture  is  as  follows:  Potato, 
40  parts;  carrots,  20  parts;  turnips,  20  parts;  cab- 
bage, 10  parts;  and  onions,  10  parts.  These  are 
dried  and  the  total  weight  reduced  to  about  17  parts. 
The  difference  in  the  use  of  vegetables  is  clearly 
shown  in  the  employment  of  such  a  dried  vegetable 
mixture  on  the  two  sides  of  the  northern  fighting 
lines  on  the  west  front.  On  the  British  side  a  day's 
ration  of  this  means  a  soup  prepared  through  the 
allowance  of  100  pounds  of  the  dried  mixture  to 
6000  men.  When  the  writer  calculated  the  food 
value  of  this  vegetable  ration  he  remarked  that  here 
was  at  least  one  good  reason  why  the  British  "  Tom- 
mies "  were  fighting  so  hard ;  they  were  trying  to 
get  across  the  line  into  Belgium  in  order  to  obtain 
food  supplies  from  the  Commission  for  Relief  in 
Belgium, —  since  the  Tommy's  individual  por- 
tion of  this  vegetable  ration  has  a  food  value  of 
not  over  20  calories.  On  the  other  side  of  the  line, 
the  German  portion  for  a  day  of  such  a  vegetable 
mixture    represents    not    less    than    200    calories. 


THE   FOOD   PROBLEM  I 79 

Now,  that  is  the  whole  situation  in  a  nut  shell.  We 
use  vegetables  as  flavouring  substances.  Our  French 
and  Italian  Allies  use  them  as  sources  of  energy  and 
food  values. 

When,  however,  one  attempts  to  urge  upon  the 
American  people  the  consumption  of  more  vege- 
tables, exclusive  of  potatoes,  as  sources  of  food- 
values,  one  realizes  our  limitations  when  the  price 
of  the  unit  values  are  calculated.  Vegetables,  esti- 
mated as  a  unit,  are  today  in  America  from  the 
standpoint  of  food  values,  almost  the  most  expen- 
sive of  foods;  in  unit  cost,  tomatoes  almost  rank 
with  champagne!  In  order  to  secure  material 
amounts  of  protein  and  carbohydrate  from  com- 
mon leaves  and  tubers,  exclusive  of  the  potato,  it 
is  necessary  to  consume  relatively  large  amounts, 
and  at  the  current  American  prices  this  becomes 
impossible  to  the  poorest  classes  of  our  population. 
The  marketing  and  distribution  of  vegetables  must 
be  so  organized  as  to  bring  the  prices  within  the 
range  of  substitution,  so  that  when  a  family  reduces 
the  use  of  staples  and  increases  the  use  of  vegeta- 
bles it  can  do  so  at  no  financial  loss. 

It  will  not  be  possible  in  all  cities  to  effect  such 
organization  on  account  of  extreme  congestion  of 
population.  It  will,  for  example,  never  be  possi- 
ble for  the  East  Side  of  New  York  to  double  the 
consumption  of  vegetables  and  reduce  the  consump- 


l8o  THE    FOOD    PROBLEM 

tion  of  staples  for  the  same  outlay  in  money;  but 
apart  from  the  congested  areas  of  a  few  of  our 
largest  cities  it  ought  to  be  possible  to  accomplish 
here  what  has  been  accomplished  in  Europe,  namely 
a  reduction  in  the  retail  price  of  staple  vegetables 
—  including  under  this  term  the  vegetables  that  can 
be  kept  throughout  the  winter  under  ordinary  con- 
ditions of  careful  storage  —  to  such  a  point  as  to 
make  it  possible  to  substitute  them  in  the  diet,  with- 
out financial  loss,  for  grains  or  animal  products. 
Nothing  indicates  more  clearly  the  inter-relation 
between  the  purely  physiological  contemplation  of 
the  diet  and  the  economic  factors.  It  is  from  every 
point  of  view  desirable  to  increase  the  consumption 
of  vegetables.  The  production  of  vegetables  has 
already  been  increased  to  meet  the  expected  de- 
mand ;  but  all  of  this  will  go  for  naught  unless  the 
crop  is  so  handled,  distributed  and  marketed  as  to 
make  the  substitution  one  that  does  not  involve  a 
financial  sacrifice.  Some  vegetables  can  be  stored; 
others  must  be  canned;  others  must  be  dried. 
There  must  be  correlation  over  the  entire  field. 
From  the  agricultural  point  of  view,  the  question 
is  important  because  a  great  deal  of  vegetables  can 
be  raised  outside  of  what  might  be  termed  formal 
agriculture,  without  imposing  any  additional  hard- 
ship to  a  material  extent  upon  labour  and  fertilizer 
required  in  formal  farming. 


THE  FOOD  PROBLEM  l8l 


FATS 


Fats  are  contained  in  dairy  products,  meats, 
cereals  and  vegetables;  but  the  subject  of  fat  in 
the  ration  is  so  important  in  war  time  that  it  is 
necessary  to  give  the  subject  a  special  consideration. 
The  fat  of  milk  contains,  as  previously  stated,  the 
indispensable  growth  vitamine  and  is  therefore  of 
fundamental  importance  in  the  nation's  ration. 
The  fat  of  beef  and  mutton  contains  a  moderate 
amount  of  this  substance;  that  of  pork  a  much 
smaller  amount,  reflecting  the  difference  in  the  diet 
of  these  animals.  The  vegetable  oils  contain  little 
or  none  and  the  fat  of  cereals  also  but  a  small 
amount. 

But  fat  has  other  objects  in  a  diet.  Fat  is  in- 
dispensable in  the  preparation  of  food  and,  ac- 
cording to  Anglo-Saxon  custom,  almost  indispensa- 
ble in  the  consumption  of  cereals.  The  amount  of 
fat  that  we  have  named  as  a  reasonable  minimum  in 
the  ration  of  our  people  is  greatly  exceeded  in  fact. 
The  per  capita  consumption  of  fat  in  this  country 
is  in  the  neighbourhood  of  3^4  ounces.  There  is  a 
tremendous  disparity  between  the  fat  contained  in 
food  production  and  fat  consumed.  A  great  deal 
of  the  fat  contained  in  the  extra-edible  parts  of 
slaughtered  animals  is  lost,  not  in  the  great  packing- 
houses but  in  the  small  rural  slaughtering-houses 


1 82  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

from  which  proceeds  about  40  per  cent  of  the  meat 
of  our  people.  The  recovery  of  vegetable  oils  is 
very  fauity;  we  do  not  begin  to  recover  for  human 
food  the  oil  contained  in  the  various  oleaginous 
seeds  that  grow  within  our  borders.  It  is  per- 
haps a  fair  statement  to  say  that  the  fat  consump- 
tion of  our  people  is  not  over  50  per  cent  of  the  fat 
offered  in  the  produce,  disregarding  in  this  calcu- 
lation the  fat  contained  in  cereals  that  go  directly 
to  the  feeding  of  animals.  Part  of  this  fat  goes 
into  the  manufacture  of  soap  and  into  other  in- 
dustrial uses;  part  is  used  in  the  feeding  of  ani- 
mals; part  is  lost  as  waste.  In  the  domain  of  re- 
covery and  utilization  of  fat  lies  one  of  the  largest 
opportunities  for  conservation,  and  the  present 
campaign  of  conservation  is  rightly  directing  most 
energetic  efforts  in  this  direction. 

Fats  have  become  very  scarce.  We  used  to  im- 
port large  amounts  of  the  oils  of  palm,  cocoanut, 
soya,  and  other  seeds  from  Africa,  South  America, 
and  Asia.  These  imports  have  almost  ceased,  due 
to  scarcity  of  tonnage.  These  fats  were  employed 
in  part  for  the  manufacture  of  soap,  in  part  for  the 
manufacture  of  cooking  fats  after  hydrogenation 
either  alone  or  mixed  with  animal  fats.  They  were 
also  employed  in  the  manufacture  of  margarin. 
Now  with  the  shutting  down  of  importations  of 
fat,  it  is  incumbent  upon  us  first  to  recover  a  larger 


THE   FOOD   PROBLEM  I 83 

amount  of  vegetable  fats  grown  within  our  own 
borders,  then  to  prevent  excessive  use  of  fat  in  in- 
dustry, to  eliminate  wasteful  use  of  soap,  and 
finally  to  reduce  fat  in  the  ration.  The  injunction 
to  reduce  the  fat  in  the  ration,  let  us  say  by  one- 
half  ounce  per  day,  will  yield  a  very  large  amount 
of  fat  for  shipment  to  our  Allies,  to  whom  fat  is 
more  important  at  present  than  to  us,  since  their 
fat  ration,  viewed  as  a  unit,  is  not  in  excess  of 
two  ounces  per  day.  The  actual  working  out  of 
such  a  repression  in  consumption  will,  however,  in 
all  probability,  have  a  different  outcome  than  the 
one  directly  expected.  When  the  attention  of  our 
people  is  strongly  extended  to  the  subject  of  waste 
in  fats  and  they  are  advised  to  reduce  the  consump- 
tion of  animal  fat  one-half  ounce  per  day,  in  all 
probability  the  result  will  be  that  the  ingestion  of 
fat  will  remain  the  same  but  one-half  ounce  per 
capita  per  day  less  will  be  wasted.  This  is  already 
indicated  in  the  figures  for  recovery  of  fat  from 
garbage  in  cities  that  possess  reduction  plants. 
What  one  saves  for  the  diet  one  loses  for  industry, 
so  far  as  these  cities  are  concerned. 

It  is  also  necessary  to  effect  a  re-distribution  of 
the  several  fats  among  the  different  classes  of  our 
people.  Too  much  butter  is  consumed  in  one  class ; 
too  little  in  another.  There  is  too  great  neglect  of 
dripping  fats  and  also  an  avoidance  of  vegetable 


184  THE    FOOD    PROBLEM 

oils.  What  is  needed  is  more  equitable  distribu- 
tion of  all  the  fats  throughout  the  strata  of  society. 
Our  people  must  be  taught  to  limit  the  use  of  but- 
ter in  time  of  war  to  table  use.  Butter  ought  not 
to  be  employed  in  cooking,  but  ought  to  be  reserved 
for  table  use  and,  in  particular,  for  children  and 
adolescents.  Dripping  fats  when  properly  em- 
ployed are  quite  as  successful  for  most  purposes  in 
the  kitchen.  The  use  of  lard  ought  to  be  restricted ; 
replaced,  in  other  words,  by  other  fats,  because,  to- 
gether with  other  pork  products,  it  represents  the 
most  staple  exportable  form  of  fat. 

We  must  furnish  our  Allies  with  meat  and  fat. 
Their  herds  are  depleted,  their  feeds  are  reduced, 
their  entire  agricultural  productivity  is  greatly  re- 
stricted and  the  result  is  a  marked  lessening  in 
the  products  of  animal  husbandry.  Importations 
from  Australia  have  become  practically  impossible; 
those  from  the  Argentine  difficult ;  and  in  any  event 
Argentine  and  South  America  supplied  very  little 
of  pork  products.  Our  Allies,  of  course,  will  use 
beef  drippings  and  mutton  tallow;  but  the  trans- 
portability and  keeping  qualities  of  lard  exceed 
those  of  the  other  products  and  in  any  event  it  is 
more  comportable  to  the  diets  of  the  people  to 
whom  fats  are  to  be  exported.  The  rules,  there- 
fore, to  be  applied  over  the  entire  country  run  to 
the  following  effect:     Elimination  of  butter  from 


THE    FOOD    PROBLEM  185 

the  kitchen;  restriction  of  butter  to  table  use, 
especially  for  children  and  adolescents;  limitation 
in  the  use  of  lard,  bacon  and  fats;  increase  in  the 
use  of  beef  drippings  and  increase  in  the  use  of 
vegetable  oils  in  the  preparation  of  food.  Esti- 
mated by  their  food  value  in  the  ordinary  sense  of 
the  term,  all  these  fats  are  equivalent  as  food. 
Variation  in  use  represents  mere  difference  in  taste, 
and  it  is  necessary  during  the  war  to  curb  the  taste 
for  butter,  lard  and  bacon  and  to  cultivate  the  taste 
for  vegetable  oils. 

One  of  the  particular  values  of  fat  in  the  diet  is 
prolongation  of  the  act  of  digestion;  this  has  a 
sociological  value  because  it  is  of  direct  influence 
on  the  consciousness  of  alimentation.  Cereals  con- 
sumed without  fat  are  much  more  rapidly  digested 
than  when  eaten  with  fat.  A  breakfast  of  600 
calories  of  bread  and  jam  will  be  more  rapidly  di- 
gested than  a  breakfast  of  600  calories  of  bread  and 
butter.  Since  the  sensation  of  hunger  is  con- 
nected with  the  termination  of  the  digestion  of  the 
previous  meal,  the  individual  whose  diet  is  low  in 
fat,  even  though  it  is  high  in  calories  and  protein, 
will  feel  under-fed.  Now  the  sensation  of  under- 
feeding, the  lack  of  satisfaction,  the  early  return 
of  the  appetite  after  a  meal,  when  it  occurs  in  a 
population,  inevitably  leads  to  unrest.  The  lack  of 
fats  in  the  German  diet  is  the  principal  cause  for 


I 86  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

complaint  against  the  diet.  Even  when,  as  in  some 
sections  of  Germany,  the  diet  was  adequate  in 
calories  and  protein  derived  from  bread,  potatoes 
and  other  vegetables,  but  almost  devoid  of  fat,  it 
did  not  give  satisfaction.  This  lesson  must  not  be 
overlooked  in  our  cities.  It  is  imperatively  neces- 
sary that  the  fat  supply  of  the  working  classes  in 
the  large  American  cities  be  maintained.  Other- 
wise, conditions  of  unrest  will  inevitably  arise,  re- 
flecting the  physiological  fact  of  the  too  rapid  ac- 
complishment of  the  act  of  digestion  as  a  result 
of  deficiency  of  fat  in  the  diet. 

TABLE   BEVERAGES 

We  are  entirely  dependent  upon  importation  for 
tea,  coffee,  cocoa  and  chocolate.  The  importance 
of  these  table  beverages  is  very  slight  in  the  indi- 
vidual sense  but  it  is  large  in  the  population  viewed 
as  a  whole.  They  contain  no  nutrients.  They  do, 
however,  contain  substances,  like  caffeine,  that  are 
apparently  real  stimulants.  It  is  not  probable  that 
the  majority  of  people  are  dependent  upon  the 
stimulating  action  of  these  alkaloids  and  that  this 
dependence  represents  the  basis  of  our  desire  for 
such  beverages.  It  is  more  probable  that  the  bev- 
erages owe  their  place  in  public  esteem  to  psycho- 
logical qualities.  A  beverage  at  a  meal  is  a  prac- 
tical necessity,  all  proponents  of  long  mastication 


THE   FOOD    PROBLEM  I 87 

without  fluids  to  the  contrary.  A  warm  drink  at 
meals  is  in  particular  grateful  to  the  majority  of 
people.  These  substances  have  pleasant  tastes  and 
aromas.  They  serve  also  as  a  vehicle  for  the 
taking  of  sugar.  To  a  very  large  number  of  peo- 
ple a  meal  will  appear  incomplete  in  the  absence  of 
one  of  these  beverages.  This  is  particularly  true 
in  the  working  classes.  Under  these  circumstances, 
deprivation  leads  to  dissatisfaction  and  unrest. 
When  these  articles  disappear,  the  people  at  once 
seek  substitutes  and  all  manner  of  leaves,  herbs, 
plants,  grains,  roots  and  other  substances  are 
brought  out  to  supply  a  beverage  that  can  be  taken 
warm  with  the  meals,  that  possesses  taste  and 
aroma,  and  fulfils  in  a  partial  sense  the  psycho- 
logical contribution  of  the  normal  table  beverage. 
Now  the  persistence  with  which  a  people  deprived 
of  tea,  coffee,  cocoa  and  chocolate  seek  substitutes 
indicates  the  importance  of  these  beverages  in  the 
diet  and  the  necessity  for  maintaining  them,  cer- 
tainly with  the  uneducated  classes,  if  unrest  and 
dissatisfaction  are  to  be  avoided. 

GARBAGE 

Directly  connected  with  the  problem  of  the  utili- 
zation of  food  is  the  question  of  garbage.  In  the 
past  the  public  point  of  view  towards  garbage  was 
summed  up  in  the  words :    "  Get  it  out  of  the  way." 


I 88  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

A  few  years  ago  cities  began  to  install  reduction 
plants  for  the  recovery  of  the  products  of  garbage 
that  had  an  industrial  value.  A  survey  of  the  situ- 
ation indicates  the  following  recommendations: 

(i)  In  the  collection  of  garbage,  inorganic  gar- 
bage should  be  separated  from  organic  garbage. 
In  other  words,  ashes,  glass,  and  street  refuse 
should  be  separated  from  garbage  of  the  kitchen 
and  table,  and  from  the  very  considerable  garbage 
collected  from  wholesale  and  retail  shops  that  deal 
in  perishable  foodstuffs. 

(2)  Organic  garbage  should  not  be  subjected  to 
incineration.  It  contains  two  elements  of  impor- 
tance that  under  practically  all  circumstances  can 
be  advantageously  used,  fat  and  protein.  In  large 
cities  regular  reduction  plants  are  employed  that 
produce  three  end-products:  fat,  a  protein-contain- 
ing fraction  that  is  comparable  to  tankage,  and  a 
residue  that  is  of  lesser  value.  In  smaller  cities  it 
is  often  of  advantage  to  extract  the  fat  only,  disre- 
garding the  other  contents.  In  still  smaller  cities 
it  does  not  pay  to  extract  the  fat,  but  it  does  pay 
to  collect  the  organic  garbage,  dry  it,  sterilize  it, 
pack  it  into  briquettes  or  powder  it.  If  the  col- 
lections are  made  in  a  proper  and  cleanly  manner 
and  decomposition  is  not  later  permitted,  the  feed 
value  of  city  garbage  is  high.  The  powder  con- 
taining the  dried  residue  of  mixed  city  garbage, 


THE    FOOD    PROBLEM  I 89 

from  which  inorganic  collections  have  been  ex- 
cluded, will  run  high  in  protein  and  fat.  Such  a 
powder  makes  an  excellent  feed  for  poultry,  swine 
or  dairy  cattle,  depending  in  part  upon  the  com- 
position. 

In  cities  where  regular  reduction  plants  are  in 
operation  the  fats  recovered  are  used  primarily  for 
the  manufacture  of  soap,  though  it  is  possible  also 
to  use  these  fats  in  the  feeding  of  domesticated 
animals. 

The  whole  subject  of  the  utilization  of  garbage 
in  the  United  States  is  a  problem  in  chemical  en- 
gineering, and  is  to  be  approached  and  solved  only 
in  this  way.  A  campaign  of  education  directed 
against  waste  in  foodstuffs  produces  very  remark- 
able reduction  in  the  garbage.  During  the  past  four 
months  the  garbage  of  certain  cities  where  an  in- 
tensive campaign  against  waste  has  been  conducted 
has  been  reduced  about  12  per  cent,  so  far  as  com- 
ponents derived  from  the  kitchen  and  the  table  are 
concerned.  The  reduction  in  waste  grease  has 
amounted  to  29  per  cent.  Reduction  and  incinera- 
tion plants  that  previously  operated  day  and  night, 
now  operate  only  through  a  portion  of  the  day. 
There  will  always  be  a  certain  garbage  that  cannot 
be  avoided;  and  for  this  inevitable  garbage,  the 
problem  of  recovery  as  an  engineering  feat  remains 
always  and  must  be  solved  here,  as  it  has  been  largely 


I9O  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

solved  in  Germany  during  the  war,  if  we  are  to  suc- 
ceed in  the  conservation  of  our  resources.  People 
must  be  brought  to  see  that  they  have  the  choice  to  a 
certain  extent  between  repression  in  waste  and  re- 
pression in  eating;  and  with  this  fully  understood, 
repression  will  be  transferred  to  waste  and  will  show 
at  once  in  the  collection  of  garbage. 

The  common  American  attitude  towards  garbage 
as  a  source  of  disease  is  erroneous.  Naturally 
when  a  community  is  so  slovenly  as  to  dump  its 
ashes,  tin  cans,  broken  glass,  refuse  vegetables, 
meats,  and  everything  else,  including  sometimes 
even  its  sewage,  on  the  lowlands,  to  undergo  de- 
composition and  drying,  to  be  blown  about  by  the 
winds,  an  eye-sore  to  every  one  and  an  offence  to 
the  nostrils,  people  regard  the  word  "  garbage  "  as 
almost  synonymous  with  "  disease."  Under  these 
circumstances  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  the 
public  believes  incineration  is  the  correct  solution 
of  the  problem.  Now  this  is  of  course  entirely 
unscientific  and  represents  the  verdict  of  prejudice 
over  efficiency.  At  the  time  that  excess  vegetables 
in  retail  shops,  kitchen  waste  and  table  scraps  leave 
the  places  where  they  originate,  they  are  hygien- 
ically  clean.  Undergoing  simple  decomposition 
does  not  render  them  hygienically  unclean,  except 
for  human  consumption.  Even  considerable  de- 
grees of  decomposition  do  not  render  the  material 


THE    FOOD    PROBLEM  191 

unfit  for  animal  food  if  it  is  later  dried  and  steril- 
ized; but  decomposition  does  represent  economic 
loss  always  and  is  therefore  to  be  avoided. 

If  every  community  of  any  appreciable  size  in 
the  United  States  installs  an  equipment  for  the  dis- 
position of  its  garbage  through  reduction  and 
utilization,  not  only  would  there  be  enormous  sav- 
ings accomplished  in  food  and  feed  units  but  there 
would  be  marked  improvement  in  the  aesthetic 
appearances  of  unoccupied  land  surrounding  Ameri- 
can communities.  For  the  smaller  cities  the  prob- 
lem of  profitable  recovery  is  difficult  of  solution. 
Up  to  the  present  there  is  no  profit  in  garbage  re- 
covery in  cities  of  under  50,000  inhabitants,  but 
this  in  itself  does  not  justify  complete  neglect  of 
garbage.  It  is  worth  while  to  dispose  of  garbage 
properly  even  at  a  loss.  We  spend  a  great  deal  of 
money  for  public  parks,  for  the  recreation  of  the 
people  and  in  a  hundred  other  ways  that  do  not 
bring  a  return  in  money  but  do  bring  a  return  in 
elevation  of  the  surroundings  of  life.  Certainly 
the  handling  of  garbage  belongs  with  these  other 
public  functions.  We  do  not  attempt  to  make 
money  out  of  sewage  in  the  American  city.  The 
disposition  of  garbage,  where  it  can  not  be  ac- 
complished with  commercial  profit,  ought  to  be 
ranked  with  the  disposition  of  sewage;  and  until 
this  point  of  view  is  obtained  we  shall  find  not  only 


192  THE    FOOD    PROBLEM 

that  garbage  represents  a  large  loss  in  food  and 
feed  units  but  represents  also  a  reflection  upon  our 
civic  efficiency. 

REGIONAL   RATIONS 

One  of  the  fundamental  principles  in  the  food 
control  of  a  people  at  war  is  the  avoidance  of  the 
use  of  powers  conferred  in  the  exigency  to  ac- 
complish anything  else  than  the  alleviation  of  nu- 
tritional problems  arising  as  a  result  of  the  war. 
A  food  administration  in  a  country  at  war  must 
necessarily  be  endowed  with  extremely  wide  pow- 
ers, powers  even  including  those  of  repression  of 
consumption  of  particular  articles.  The  wide 
powers  granted  to  the  food  administration  in  time 
of  war  are  granted  solely  for  the  protection  of 
society  against  the  results  of  war;  they  are  not 
intended  to  be  used  for  the  advancement  of  ideas, 
no  matter  how  meritorious,  whose  application  in 
no  wise  relates  to  the  war-time  exigency.  In  other 
words,  national  problems  in  diet  of  peace  time  must 
not  be  solved  through  coercion  in  war.  This  is  a 
field  for  education  and  not  for  legislation. 

In  a  small  country  like  Germany  or  France  it  is 
possible  to  place  the  entire  population  upon  a  fixed 
ration  to  be  applied  to  all  classes.  This  is  not  pos- 
sible in  the  United  States,  nor  is  it  desirable,  and 
for  two  reasons.     In  the  first  place  the  natural  diet 


THE   FOOD    PROBLEM  I93 

of  different  sections  is  widely  variant.  A  traveller 
transported  from  the  plains  of  Texas  to  the  hills 
of  New  England  would  regard  himself  dietetically 
in  a  foreign  country.  The  diet  and  preparation 
of  food  in  the  German  and  Swedish  agricultural 
classes  of  the  Middle  West  are  entirely  different 
from  those  of  the  Mediterranean  immigrants  in 
California.  While  the  facilities  of  modern  trans- 
portation have  made  it  possible  for  people  of  means 
to  select  a  diet  that  practically  represents  the  pro- 
duction of  the  world,  nevertheless,  the  regional  in- 
fluences of  production  upon  the  diet  of  a  people  is 
still  heavy.  Viewed  physiologically  this  state  of 
affairs  is  both  desirable  and  undesirable;  but  there 
can  be  no  question  that  in  the  exigency  of  war 
time  the  independence  of  the  population  of  a  cer- 
tain region  represents  a  factor  of  importance. 

In  the  present  condition  of  transportation  in  the 
United  States  it  would  be  impossible  to  ship  food 
about  in  such  a  fashion  as  to  give  the  same  diet  to 
people  of  each  of  our  states.  Transportation  being 
such  an  important  factor,  it  becomes  imperative  for 
each  State  to  subsist  to  as  large  an  extent  as  pos- 
sible upon  the  produce  of  that  State.  Certain 
States,  for  example,  Georgia,  had  until  within  a 
few  years  pursued  so  one-sided  an  agriculture  in 
the  production  of  cotton  as  to  have  been  a  food- 
importing  State  in  the  same  sense  almost  that  New 


194  THE   FOOD    PROBLEM 

York  City  was  a  food-importing  city.  This  may 
have  been  efficiency  in  peace  time,  since  each  area 
produced  the  crops  to  which  it  was  most  fitted, — 
although  there  is  a  wide  difference  of  opinion  upon 
this  point  It  is  certainly  not  at  all  a  system  of 
efficiency  in  war  time.  This  was  the  basis  for  the 
appeal  sent  out  by  the  President  early  this  year, 
calling  upon  the  people  to  produce  more  largely  in 
foodstuffs  in  order  to  render  themselves  less  de- 
pendent upon  other  states. 

The  tremendous  element  of  trade  in  connec- 
tion with  the  nutrition  of  a  complex  people  can- 
not be  disregarded  in  time  of  war.  For  example, 
the  flour  mills  of  Kansas  City  have  a  regular  trade 
in  the  country  around  Buffalo  and  the  Buffalo  mills 
have  a  regular  trade  in  the  country  around  Kansas 
City.  Now  in  war  time  such  a  state  of  affairs  is 
absurd.  The  centralization  of  the  slaughter  of 
meat  animals  in  a  few  large  cities  may  be  efficient 
in  time  of  peace;  but  decentralization  in  the 
slaughter  of  domesticated  animals,  if  proper  in- 
spection can  be  maintained,  would  be  unquestion- 
ably better  in  time  of  war.  It  is  not  possible  in 
time  of  war  to  alter  the  normal  customs  to  more 
than  a  certain  extent;  but  it  is  imperative  under 
present  conditions  of  transportation  that  the  people 
of  each  State  realize  fully  the  importance  of  this 
problem,  restrict  themselves  in  so  far  as  it  may  be 


THE   FOOD   PROBLEM  195 

possible  to  the  produce  of  their  own  State,  and  so 
long  as  the  war  lasts  increase  the  local  production 
of  foodstuffs  in  order  to  render  themselves  inde- 
pendent of  importations  through  the  channels  of 
trade. 

Of  course,  this  is  an  injury  to  the  trade,  but  an 
injury  to  trade  that  is  unavoidable  in  war  time  and 
one  counterbalanced  by  gain  to  the  people  as  a 
whole.  Profit  in  trade  is  directly  proportional  to 
the  multiplicity  of  transactions.  Efficiency  in  war 
time  is  directly  proportional  to  simplicity  of  trans- 
actions. A  survey  of  the  regulations  and  experi- 
ence of  the  European  countries  indicates  that  with 
each  month  as  the  war  life  becomes  more  and  more 
direct,  the  manipulations  of  trade  become  reduced 
in  number  and  the  factors  of  trade,  as  contrasted 
with  production  and  consumption,  become  more  and 
more  relegated  to  the  background. 

"  Business  as  usual "  is  an  impossible  slogan  in 
war  time,  since  "  business  as  usual "  means  a 
multiplicity  of  trade  operations  that  are  not  de- 
signed to  secure  the  nutrition  of  the  people  in  the 
simplest  and  most  direct  manner  and  at  the  least 
expense  —  which  is  the  role  of  a  food  administra- 
tion in  war  time.  The  same  statement  holds  for 
the  relations  of  trade  in  articles  of  agricultural 
production.  In  everything  that  comes  to  the  farm 
in  the   form   of   fertilizer,   seed,   and   agricultural 


I96  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

implements,  and  goes  from  the  farm  in  the  form 
of  crops  and  live  stock,  the  application  of  the  rule, 
'*  business  as  usual,"  leads  to  an  inefficiency,  under 
the  exigency  of  war  time,  that  has  its  effect  not  only 
on  the  consumer  but  also  on  the  producer. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

GRAIN   AND   ALCOHOL 

Our  Allies  and  the  enemy  countries  have  re- 
stricted the  manufacture  of  alcoholic  beverages. 
The  neutrals  surrounding  the  Central  Empires  have 
also  restricted  the  manufacture  of  alcoholic  bev- 
erages. The  inevitable  conclusion  is  that  the 
manufacture  of  these  beverages  represents  a  waste 
in  grains  that  must  be  curtailed  in  war  time. 
Naturally  the  same  proposition  was  advanced  in 
our  country  in  the  earliest  days  of  the  campaign  for 
the  restriction  of  waste.  The  situations  are  some- 
what different,  in  that  the  countries  in  Europe  are 
grain-importing  countries  while  we  are  a  grain- 
exporting  country.  Whenever  our  people  are  ap- 
pealed to  for  reduction  of  waste,  it  is  retorted  that 
one  waste  directly  under  governmental  control  lies 
in  the  manufacture  of  alcoholic  beverages.  To  this 
the  reply  is  made  by  the  trade  in  alcoholic  beverages 
that  the  income  derived  therefrom  more  than  com- 
pensates for  the  amount  of  grain  consumed. 

A  judicial  survey  of  the  problem  indicates  that 
there  are  several  factors  that  must  be  separated  and 

i97 


I98  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

clearly  evaluated:  (1)  The  loss  in  grain  that  at- 
tends the  manufacture  of  alcoholic  beverages 
viewed  as  a  total  process,  a  problem  in  nutrition; 
(2)  the  loss  of  revenue  that  would  attend  the  enact- 
ment of  prohibition;  (3)  the  purely  ethical  motives 
that  formed  the  basis  for  the  pre-war  prohibition 
movement;  (4)  the  bearing  of  alcoholism  upon  na- 
tional efficiency  in  war  time  as  a  war-time  prob- 
lem; and  (5)  the  relations  of  alcohol  as  a  narcotic 
to  the  stress  of  an  intensive  warfare. 

For  us  at  this  place  the  nutritional  question  in- 
volved in  the  manufacture  of  alcoholic  beverages 
is  alone  to  be  considered.  There  has  been  a  great 
deal  of  misapprehension  concerning  this,  as  was  to 
have  been  expected  when  a  peace-time  problem  has 
been  carried  over  into  war  time.  On  the  part  of 
the  proponents  of  prohibition  exaggerated  state- 
ments of  the  nutritional  units  concerned  in  the 
manufacture  of  alcoholic  beverages  have  been  widely 
circulated.  On  the  other  hand,  certain  interests 
concerned  with  the  manufacture  of  alcoholic  bev- 
erages have  endeavoured  to  make  it  appear  that  a 
gain  in  nutritional  units  is  accomplished  through  the 
fermentation  of  grain.  The  data  are  available  to 
every  one  and  the  interpretation  clear.  Three  sen- 
tences suffice  to  summarize  the  scientific  conclusions : 

(1)  The  grains  employed  in  the  manufacture  of 
alcoholic  beverages  are  predominatingly  feed  grains 


THE   FOOD   PROBLEM  199 

and  not  bread  grains,  and  the  total  amount  em- 
ployed represents  on  an  average  not  much  over  2 
per  cent  of  the  total  grain  production; 

(2)  If  the  grains  devoted  to  the  manufacture 
of  alcoholic  beverages  be  devoted  to  the  feeding  of 
domesticated  animals,  there  will  be  little  gain  as 
compared  to  the  results  when  the  same  grains  are 
used  in  the  manufacture  of  alcoholic  beverages  and 
the  spent  residues  devoted  to  the  feeding  of  live 
stock ; 

(3)  There  would  be  a  large  gain  if  the  grains 
devoted  to  the  manufacture  of  alcoholic  beverages 
should  be  devoted  directly  to  the  feeding  of  human 
beings. 

The  following  paragraphs  will  make  these  rela- 
tions clear.  During  the  fiscal  year  ending  June 
30,  19 16,  the  materials  required  for  the  manufac- 
ture of  distilled  spirits  were  in  round  figures  as 
follows,  in  bushels :  Malt,  4  million ;  corn,  32  mil- 
lion; rye,  3  million;  oats,  wheat  and  other  cereals 
up  to  a  total  of  39,500,000  bushels.  This  grain  is 
all  supposed  to  be  grain  of  good  quality  but  it  is 
not  necessarily  grain  of  millable  quality.  All  of 
these  grains  are  of  course  of  quality  fit  for  the 
feeding  of  domesticated  animals.  In  addition, 
molasses  was  used  to  the  extent  of  over  152,000,000 
gallons.  The  money  value  of  these  ingredients  was 
somewhere  in  the  neighbourhood  of  $44,000,000. 


20O  THE    FOOD    PROBLEM 

The  money  value  of  the  distillers'  spent  grains  was 
somewhere  in  the  neighbourhood  of  $9,000,000. 
These  figures  represent  a  large  increase  over  the 
figures  of  the  previous  year,  but  this  increase  was 
due  principally  to  an  augmented  demand  for  alco- 
hol used  in  war  industries. 

An  analysis  of  the  data  indicates  that  of  the 
total  production,  249,000,000  gallons,  of  distilled 
spirits  in  1916,  some  123,000,000  gallons  were 
manufactured  for  purposes  of  human  consump- 
tion, leaving  126,000,000  gallons  that  were  de- 
voted to  technical  use  in  industry,  arts  and  the 
sciences.  With  the  continuation  of  the  war  it 
is  clear  that  our  production  of  industrial  alco- 
hol must  be  progressively  augmented.  We  are 
unable  to  hope  that  in  the  immediate  future  there 
will  be  any  reduction  in  the  utilization  of  grains 
for  the  manufacture  of  industrial  spirits.  The 
whisky  now  in  bond  could  be  redistilled  —  over 
200,000,000  gallons  were  in  the  bonded  ware- 
houses in  June,  19 17.  The  molasses  used  in  the 
manufacture  of  distilled  spirits  was  in  the  past  al- 
ways molasses  of  feeding  grade  and  not  of  the 
quality  employed  as  human  food.  During  the  past 
year,  however,  owing  to  conditions  in  the  manu- 
facture of  sugar,  a  great  deal  of  molasses  entirely 
fit  for  human  consumption  was  used  in  distilleries. 

We  face  the  necessity  of  securing  non-edible  ma- 


THE   FOOD    PROBLEM  201 

terials  from  which  alcohol  may  be  prepared.  Many 
substances  are  available  to  a  greater  or  less  extent 
in  different  portions  of  the  country,  were  the  meth- 
ods of  utilization  developed  as  they  have  been 
abroad.  Sweet  and  white  potatoes,  kafircorn  and 
sorghum  grains  ought  to  be  included.  In  Germany 
the  manufacture  of  alcohol  from  potato  has  been 
successfully  practised  for  a  long  time  and  the  ex- 
cess sweet  and  white  potatoes  of  this  country  would 
yield  a  large  amount  of  alcohol.  Sugar  beet  pulp, 
now  utilized  as  a  stock  feed,  also  yields  alcohol 
under  appropriate  processing,  and  the  same  is  true 
of  the  residues  of  the  sugar  cane.  The  sulphite 
liquors  of  pulp  mills,  straw  and  sawdust  can  all  be 
employed  for  the  manufacture  of  alcohol  and  are 
indeed  so  employed  in  this  country  on  a  small 
scale.  Garbage  represents  a  source  of  carbohy- 
drate from  which  alcohol  may  be  produced.  Un- 
fortunately the  development  of  processes  for  the 
manufacture  of  alcohol  from  other  substances  than 
grain  and  molasses  is  in  its  very  beginning  in  this 
country,  and  it  does  not  seem  possible  to  hope  for 
great  expansion  in  these  directions  in  the  immediate 
future.  Under  these  circumstances,  we  fear  that 
during  the  next  year  more  grain  will  be  employed 
in  the  manufacture  of  alcohol  for  industrial  pur- 
poses than  was  last  year  employed  in  the  manufac- 
ture of  distilled  spirits  for  beverages  and  industrial 


202  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

purposes  combined.  If  the  manufacture  of  alcohol 
be  permitted  to  such  distilleries  only  as  are  equipped 
to  dry  and  market  the  spent  grains  the  losses  will  be 
minimal. 

Corn  is  our  heaviest  crop  and  corn  is  the  grain 
most  used  in  the  manufacture  of  whisky.  If  this 
corn  were  used  in  feeding  live  stock  what  would  be 
the  gain  over  the  use  of  corn  employed  in  the  manu- 
facture of  whisky?  It  is  impossible  to  answer  the 
question  by  a  single  statement  or  figure  on  account 
of  a  necessary  difficulty  in  the  selection  of  a  cri- 
terion. One  must  either  judge  from  the  standpoint 
of  total  energy  values  or  from  the  standpoint 
of  the  gain  in  a  single  all-important  constituent, 
protein.  Decision  from  the  standpoint  of  protein 
is  easy;  from  the  standpoint  of  total  energy,  diffi- 
cult, or,  indeed,  impossible. 

The  use  of  protein  as  a  criterion  in  deciding  the 
question  is  made  all  the  more  advantageous  by  the 
fact  that  in  the  feeding  of  live  stock  in  this  country 
protein  is  a  much  more  important  factor  than 
carbohydrate  or  pure  energy-producing  material. 
Now  when  corn  is  converted  into  whisky  all  of  the 
protein  remains  in  the  distillers'  grains.  If  these 
were  all  recovered,  dried  and  used  as  a  stock  feed, 
they  would  contain  all  of  the  original  protein  value 
of  the  grain.  There  are  well-grounded  objections 
to  the  use  of  distillers'  slops  and  moist  distillers' 


THE   FOOD   PROBLEM  203 

grains  for  feeding;  but  when  distillers'  grains  are 
dried  and  heated  these  objections  disappear,  so  that 
used  as  a  concentrate  in  connection  with  other 
feeds,  dried  distillers'  grains  form  a  first-grade 
feeding-stuff. 

The  real  question  then  becomes:  What  propor- 
tion of  distillers'  grains  are  employed  as  stock  feed? 
It  is  impossible  to  obtain  accurate  figures.  With  the 
ascending  price  of  cattle  feed,  the  distillers  can 
afford  to  recover  their  spent  grains  more  carefully, 
and  prepare  them  for  the  market  by  drying.  As  a 
matter  of  fact  they  are  becoming  more  and  more 
widely  used  as  ingredients  of  mixed  stock  feeds. 
Unquestionably  there  is  still  loss  in  connection  with 
small  distilleries  lying  in  more  or  less  out  of  the 
way  localities.  Nevertheless,  viewing  the  matter 
as  a  whole,  it  is  clear  that  in  the  conversion  of 
corn  into  whisky,  there  need  be  little  loss  of  nutri- 
ent units  from  the  standpoint  of  conservation.  If 
the  particular  corn  used  in  the  manufacture  of 
whisky  were  used  instead  as  human  food  there 
would  be  a  large  gain,  as  will  be  later  shown;  but 
when  one  realizes  that  the  consumption  of  corn  as 
human  food  in  this  country  is  less  than  10  per  cent 
of  the  available  crop,  even  this  statement  of  the  ar- 
gument is  somewhat  forced. 

During  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  19 16, 
barley  to  the  extent  of  over  52,000,000  bushels  was 


204  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

converted  into  malt  for  use  in  the  manufacture  of 
beer,  including  in  this  term  all  brewed  beverages. 
In  addition  to  this  some  13,000,000  bushels  of  corn, 
including  grits  and  cerealine,  and  2,500,000  bushels 
of  rice  were  also  employed.  The  amount  of  sugar 
used  is  not  recorded.  This  does  not  represent  the 
total  amount  of  barley  converted  into  malt.  There 
was  a  relatively  heavy  export  and  malt  is  also  em- 
ployed to  a  considerable  extent  by  bakers  and  in 
various  technical  industries. 

Now  this  amount  represents  from  a  third  to  a 
fourth  of  the  whole  of  the  ordinary  crop  of  barley 
in  our  country.  Barley  in  the  United  States  is 
largely  a  feed  grain,  the  manufacture  of  barley 
flour  being  practically  unknown  before  the  war.  A 
certain  amount  of  pearled  barley  and  barley  prep- 
arations were  used  in  the  diet  of  children  and  of  the 
sick,  and  barley  breakfast  foods  have  also  appeared 
upon  the  market.  But  barley  in  the  distant  past 
was  regarded  as  a  bread  grain.  In  the  pre-war 
period  barley  was  used  for  bread  in  Russia,  Sweden 
and  Norway,  and  to  some  extent  in  Germany, 
where  it  was  also  widely  consumed  in  the  state  of 
pearled  barley.  There  is  a  common  notion  with 
American  stockmen  that  barley  has  a  low  nutritive 
value  as  a  feed  for  domesticated  animals.  This  is 
entirely  untrue.  Barley,  largely  used  either  as 
barley  offal  or  as  the  crushed  grain,  is  an  excellent 


THE   FOOD    PROBLEM  20$ 

concentrated  feeding-stuff,  and,  in  Denmark  and 
Germany,  where  the  feeding  of  domesticated  ani- 
mals has  been  much  more  specialized  than  in  this 
country,  barley  is  a  favourite  feeding  grain,  par- 
ticularly for  swine. 

The  rice  used  in  the  manufacture  of  beer  is  in 
large  part  not  such  rice  as  could  be  sold  for  table 
rice,  consisting  more  of  broken  rice,  screenings  and 
uneven  grades  that,  perfectly  good  in  themselves, 
are  excluded  by  the  standards  of  the  market.  Grits 
and  cerealine  also,  while  perfectly  good  products, 
are  not  high  grade  in  market  classification.  If 
these  grains  were  not  employed  in  the  manufacture 
of  beer  they  would  probably  be  used  as  feed  for 
domesticated  animals  or  poultry.  If  the  barley 
employed  in  the  manufacture  of  beer  were  used  for 
animal  feed  directly  there  would  be  little  gain  in 
■the  exchange.  About  15  per  cent  of  the  protein 
of  the  barley  re-appears  in  the  beer.  A  certain 
percentage,  let  us  say,  10  per  cent,  is  contained  in 
the  yeast.  A  certain  percentage  is  in  the  sprouts 
and  the  remainder  in  the  brewers'  grains. 

The  sprouts  are  used  largely  in  the  manufacture 
of  yeast  for  bread-making  and  also  in  other  tech- 
nical industries,  though  employed  to  some  extent 
as  a  high-grade  stock  feed.  The  yeast  ought  to  be 
entirely  saved  and  used  as  stock  feed,  and  in  the  best 
breweries  it  is  not  wasted.     In  many  smaller  brew- 


206  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

eries,  however,  there  is  a  large  waste  in  yeast. 
The  dried  brewers'  grains  proceeding  from  a  unit 
of  malt  after  the  manufacture  of  beer  is  completed 
contain  the  largest  fraction  of  the  protein  of  the 
original  barley.  In  view  of  the  present  price  of 
feed  it  must  be  assumed  that  there  is  little  wastage 
in  spent  grains  and  sprouts.  Assuming  that  this 
wastage  is  as  much  as  10  per  cent,  it  is  apparent 
that  domesticated  animals  receive  at  present  about 
two-thirds  of  the  protein  contained  in  the  original 
barley  and  that  of  the  remainder  the  largest  frac- 
tion goes  into  human  food  in  the  form  of  beer  and 
in  bread.  Obviously  there  is,  from  the  nutritional 
point  of  view,  little  loss  when  barley  is  employed 
in  the  manufacture  of  beer  and  the  residues  fed  to 
domesticated  animals  contrasted  with  the  results  of 
direct  feeding  of  the  barley  to  animals. 

A  very  different  result  however  is  obtained  when 
the  barley  is  used  as  human  food.  Transfer  of 
barley  from  the  brewery  to  the  flour  mill  involves 
a  gain  in  nutritive  units  for  human  consumption 
and  a  loss  for  domesticated  animals.  The  gain 
and  loss  are  not  directly  comparable,  but  the  re- 
lations may  be  made  clear.  In  accordance  with  the 
experience  of  European  countries  during  this  war, 
barley  flour  represents  one  of  the  best  flours  for  ad- 
mixture with  wheat  flour  in  the  production  of  mixed 
flour  bread.     The  best  results  are  obtained,  with 


THE    FOOD    PROBLEM  207 

the  lowest  alteration  in  the  bread-making  qualities 
of  the  mixture,  and  with  the  least  detectable  change 
in  taste  of  the  bread  and  retention  of  the  keeping 
qualities  of  the  flour,  when  the  barley  is  milled  to 
not  more  than  a  60  per  cent  extraction.  If  the 
barley  were  so  milled,  and  the  flour  were  employed 
as  human  food  and  the  offal  used  as  stock  feed, 
about  one-third  of  the  protein  would  be  in  the  grain 
offal  and  two-thirds  in  the  flour.  If  the  grain  offal 
were  fed  under  standard  conditions  to  dairy  cattle, 
the  protein  would  be  recovered  to  an  extent  of  about 
30  to  35  per  cent;  if  fed  to  pork  the  protein  would 
be  recovered  to  an  extent  of  about  25  per  cent  under 
favourable  conditions.  These  same  coefficients  must 
be  applied  to  the  barley  when  used  in  the  manu- 
facture, of  beer  and  the  residues  used  as  stock  feed. 
On  the  one  side  of  the  comparison,  then,  we  have 
the  food  units  in  the  barley  flour  plus  the  food  units 
obtained  in  milk,  pork  or  beef  as  the  result  of  feed- 
ing of  the  barley  offal.  On  the  other  side  of  the 
comparison  is  the  food  unit  in  the  beer  plus  the  food 
units  obtained  in  milk,  pork  and  beef  as  the  result 
of  feeding  the  brewers'  grains,  sprouts,  and  yeast. 
The  recoveries  are  in  each  instance  highest  in  the 
case  of  milk  and  lowest  in  the  case  of  beef.  When 
the  protein  values  of  50,000,000  bushels  of  barley 
are  thus  calculated,  on  the  basis  of  standard  feed- 
ing values  and  assuming  that  the  grains  are  em- 


208  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

ployed  to  the  same  extent  both  in  the  feeding  of  cat- 
tle and  of  swine,  the  gain  in  protein  as  human  food- 
stuff when  the  barley  is  used  in  the  manufacture  of 
flour  instead  of  in  the  manufacture  of  beer  would 
amount  to  somewhere  between  80,000,000  and  100,- 
000,000  pounds  of  protein.  This  amount  of  pro- 
tein is  sufficient  to  meet  the  annual  protein  require- 
ments of  about  2,500,000  people.  Exported  to 
France  and  expressed  in  terms  of  bread,  the  Ameri- 
can barley  used  in  the  manufacture  of  beer  last 
year  was  equal  to  the  normal  bread  ration  of  7,000,- 
000  people.  This  figure  becomes  more  impressive 
when  we  recall  that  the  beer  here  cannot  be  applied 
to  a  per  capita  ration. 

The  gain,  however,  in  another  sense  would  be 
still  larger.  What  our  Allies  need  is  flour,  and  the 
flour  of  barley  is  entirely  acceptable  to  them  and 
can  be  mixed  with  wheat  flour  in  the  proportion  of 
four  to  one.  The  loss  in  feed  protein  involved  in 
the  use  of  this  barley  as  food  is  so  small  in  con- 
trast to  our  production  of  corn,  oats,  beans,  cow- 
peas,  cottonseed  cake,  linseed  cake,  and  velvet  beans 
as  to  fall  outside  of  all  consideration  in  the  quanti- 
tative sense.  Calculated  in  terms  of  milk,  the  pro- 
tein value  of  brewers'  grains  is  worth  about  150,- 
000,000  gallons  of  milk  per  annum.  This,  while 
a  large  figure,  does  not  loom  large  against  some 
8,000,000,000  gallons  of  milk  that  are  supposed  to 


THE    FOOD   PROBLEM  209 

be  produced  annually  in  this  country.  On  the 
other  hand,  brewers'  grains  are  not  used  evenly 
throughout  the  country  in  a  geographical  sense, 
but  are  used  to  a  large  extent  in  certain  zones.  In 
Wisconsin  and  Illinois  and  in  the  eastern  dairy 
territory,  the  loss  of  dried  brewers'  grains  would 
embarrass  the  feeding  operations  unless  other  pro- 
teins were  made  available.  Such  proteins,  how- 
ever can  be  made  freely  available;  their  utilization 
is  merely  a  question  of  organization  on  the  part  of 
national  and  state  departments  of  agriculture. 

From  all  this  it  can  be  seen  that  there  is  not 
much  occasion  for  discussion  of  grain  and  alcohol 
from  the  food-saving  point  of  view,  unless  the  peo- 
ple are  prepared  either  to  consume  the  barley  flour 
themselves  or  to  export  this  barley  flour  to  our 
Allies.  Merely  to  cease  the  manufacture  of  beer 
without  provision  for  the  utilization  of  the  barley 
flour  would  accomplish  almost  nothing.  The  bar- 
ley would  simply  remain  as  a  slight  addition  to  the 
stock  of  feed  grains  and  little  conservation  would 
have  been  accomplished.  If,  however,  the  barley 
were  milled,  the  flour  would  represent  a  very  ma- 
terial addition  of  human  food,  an  addition  much 
needed  because  of  the  present  low  stock  and  short 
crop  of  wheat. 


CONCLUSION 

PATRIOTISM   AND   FOOD 

Patriotism  and  food!  Winning  a  world  war 
by  eating  corn  and  chicken  instead  of  wheat  and 
beef!  It  will  take  much  education  to  get  this 
point  of  view.  An  army  of  food-savers  does  not 
appeal  to  the  imagination  at  first  consideration. 
But  remember  the  large  words  of  M.  Bloch: 
"  That  is  the  future  of  war  —  not  fighting  but 
famine." 

Germany  is  fighting  not  only  with  armies  of  men 
in  field-grey  but  with  greater  armies  of  un-uni- 
formed  men,  women  and  children;  the  civilian 
armies  of  workers  and  food-savers.  Germany  is 
fighting  as  a  whole  people,  a  whole  nation  mobilized. 
Germany  is  fighting  to  win  a  war  that  was  to  have 
been  all  conquest  and  glory,  and  is  now  all  Durch- 
halten.  In  this  fighting  and  Durchhalten  Germany 
has  lifted  food  to  all  the  importance  that  M.  Bloch 
prophesied  for  it.  She  is  struggling  to  hold  off 
famine  from  herself  and  to  assure  famine  for  her 
enemies.  Germany  controls  food,  saves  food, 
stretches  food,  as  no  nation  ever  did  before.  That 
she  has  not  already  been  beaten  is  due  no  less  to  her 


THE    FOOD    PROBLEM  211 

food  organization  than  to  her  fighting  organiza- 
tion. She  has  put  patriotism  and  food  together. 
So  must  we. 

It  is  a  time  of  rare  and  glorious  opportunity;  a 
time  in  which  prosaic  business  and  industry  may  be 
lifted  up  to  the  high  plane  of  national  service. 
And  it  is  being  so  conceived  in  many  quarters. 
The  editor  of  a  millers'  journal  puts  it  well  for  his 
miller  and  baker  readers  when  he  says :  "  He  who 
grinds  a  barrel  of  flour  or  makes  a  loaf  of  bread  to 
the  glory  and  the  good  of  the  nation,  forgetful  of 
self,  performs  his  duty  in  a  spirit  of  devotion  equal 
in  its  way  to  that  of  him  who  goes  forth  to  actual 
battle." 

And  just  as  business  and  industry  can  perform 
their  national  service  by  putting  patriotism  and 
food  together,  so  can  we  who  serve  our  households 
and  public  dining-rooms;  and  so  also  can  we  who 
eat  —  in  a  word,  all  of  us.  There  is  no  magic 
way  to  making  food  win  the  war.  It  can  be  done 
but  in  one  way,  the  way  of  voluntary  and  eager 
resolution  and  action  of  the  whole  people,  each 
group  and  each  person  according  to  the  measure 
of  his  opportunity  and  means;  a  matter  of  daily 
personal  service  on  every  farm,  in  all  the  places 
through  which  pass  the  great  food  masses,  and, 
finally,  in  every  little  shop  and  every  kitchen  and  at 
every  table  in  the  land. 


212  THE   FOOD   PROBLEM 

It  is  not  a  sordid  association,  patriotism  and  food. 
It  can  be  as  fine  as  the  spirit  of  democracy  and  as 
ennobling  as  the  struggle  for  democracy.  For  it  is, 
in  truth,  in  these  days  an  essential  part  of  each.  If 
we  cannot  organize  our  effort  in  this  world  crisis 
by  the  individual  initiative,  spirit  and  consent  of 
the  people,  then  democracy  is  a  faith  on  which  we 
cannot  stand.  For  autocracy  has  shown  that  it 
can  organize  its  effort;  it  does  it  by  imposing  or- 
ganization by  force,  from  the  top.  We  must  do 
it  from  the  bottom,  and  voluntarily.  The  admin- 
istration of  food  is  a  test  of  what  our  form  of 
government  is  worth.  If  success  in  it  did  no  more 
than  insure  its  immediate  aim,  providing  our  Allies 
with  food,  it  would  be  wholly  worth  while.  But 
it  will  do  more  than  that;  it  will  prove  our  faith 
in  ourselves. 


Table  of  Equivalents  of  Metric  and  English 
Measures 


i  Kilogram 
i  Gram 

One  ounce 
i  Litre 
i  Metric  ton 
i  Hectare 
i  Hundredweight 
i  Quintal 
i  Quarter  (of 

wheat  or  corn)  =  480  lbs. 


2.2  LBS. 

28.35   GRAMS 
.88  QUART 
2,204.85    LBS. 
2.471  ACRES 
112  LBS. 
220  LBS. 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America. 


213 


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